t 



LAY EFFORT; 



ITS RANGE AND METHODS. 



BY THE 

REV. H. C. HAYDN, D.D., 

it 

CLEVELAND, O. 



NEW YORK: 
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 

900 BROADWAY, COR. 20th ST. 



COPYRIGHT, 1877, BY 

ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY. 

Bequest 
Albert Adsit demons 
Aug. 24, 1938 
(Not available for exchange) 



EDWARD O. JENKINS, 
PRINTER AND STBREOTYPER, 
20 NORTH tVILLIAM ST., N. Y. 



ROBERT RUTTER, 
BINDER, 
84 BEEKMAN ST., N. Y. 



CONTENTS. 



i. 

The Ministry and the Laity, .... 5 

II. 

Lay- Work as Church-Work, .11 

III. 

The Range of Lay-Work, 16 

IV. 

The Specific End of Lay-Work, .... 44 

V. 

Qualifications, . 48 

VI. 

Mistakes, 5 8 

VII. 

The Lay-Worker's Self-Culture, . . .86 
VIII. 

Conclusion, ■ . . .100 



INTRODUCTION. 



It is a fit thing to be said, that for substance 
these pages are the outgrowth of three or four lec- 
tures to lay-workers under the auspices of the 
Young Men's Christian Association of Cleveland, 
O., in the winter of 1874. They were free, informal 
talks, as to personal friends, mostly young men. In 
the revision and re-cast of them it has not seemed 
best to throw them out of the style of direct ad- 
dress then assumed. They are given to the larger 
public, partly at the suggestion of those who heard 
them, partly by reason of the conviction that what 
was then thought to be useful to a few earnest 
men, may be found to be of service to the vastly 
greater number who, in the Church of Christ, are 
not content to be enrolled as members, but must 
likewise see to it that, in some good degree, they 
fulfill the commission which repeats itself in the 
ears of each new recruit in the army of the Lord. 

(5) 



6 



Introduction. 



So far as I know, this is the first venture in print, 
aside from a few fugitive newspaper articles, in this 
direction. 

Doubtless, it will seem to many that going thus 
far, it were well to have gone farther ; to have cov- 
ered more ground and to have treated the several- 
points with more fullness. But the aim has been 
rather to throw out hints which might become 
fruitful in those that receive them, and to bring 
what is said within easy reach of every Christian 
worker who may have the faintest desire to possess 
himself of the contents of these chapters. This 
end a larger book might possibly have defeated. 

Some one more capable to instruct and stimulate 
the active young membership of our churches^ 
though probably not more closely in sympathy 
with what is best in the restless activity of our age, 
may follow after with wiser counsels. The thought 
shapes itself into a well-defined hope that so it may 
be. A pressing want just now is to have done for 
the Young Men's Christian Association what is 
being done for the Sunday-school workers of the 
Church of our time. It will have been enough for 
me to have contributed something in this direction. 



I. 



THE MINISTRY AND THE LAITY. 

The Church of Christ consists of ministers and 
laymen. What she does for the world is done by 
the one or the other, or both conjoined. Their 
sphere is not identical, though in the same field. 

There is probably no work of the laity which 
the ministry may not with propriety do. The 
Apostles called into existence the order of deacons, 
not on grounds of propriety, but of expediency ; 
and gave the service of tables and the care of the 
poor into their hands. 

There is, doubtless, a sphere of the ministry 
which, so long as they are laymen, the laity may 
not with propriety enter. It is well to recognize at 
the outset the fact that there has always been a 
body of men called out and separated unto the 
special service of God. They ministered at the 
altar under the Old, they give themselves to the 
ministry of the Word and the ordinances of Christ 
under the New dispensation. 

(7) 



8 The Ministry and the Laity. 

" God hath set some in the Church, first apostles, 
secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that 
miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, 
diversities of tongues." Unquestionably, the greater 
includes the less. An Apostle might traverse the 
whole range of gifts below him, but a teacher 
might not assume the apostolic function. 

The " fitness of things " rather than any express 
command, requires the laity to respect the func- 
tion of a called, educated, and ordained minis- 
try of the Word. That all things may be done 
decently and in order, for self-protection and in 
self-respect, the laity will insist that the ministry 
administer the sacraments and be the recognized 
leaders of the Church in the work of the world's 
evangelization. And the ministry will insist upon 
this prerogative, not in a narrow spirit of jealousy, 
but as being in harmony with the will of God. 
They can truly say, with Paul, " I would that ye all 
spake with tongues ; " and with Moses, " Would 
God that all the Lord's people were prophets." 
They can rejoice, so far as they are concerned, that 
Christ is preached, though sometimes with ques- 
tionable wisdom as to matter and manner. But 
nobody should forget that Saul and Jeroboam as- 



The Ministry and the Laity. 9 

sumed for themselves the priestly function not 
with impunity; and that the jealousy of Miriam 
and Aaron over the preeminence of Moses was 
summarily rebuked of the Lord. 

The rank and file of an army have no occasion to 
be jealous of their commissioned officers, or to be 
ambitious to vault into their places. Neither can 
get on without the other. The success of the 
one order of men is the success of the other. The 
crown of the one is the crown of both. So it is 
with the ministry and the laity in the Church of 
Christ. They both work under the same Lord, for 
the same ends, each in his own sphere, and they 
lay their laurels at the feet of Christ, in profound 
and grateful humility — " not unto us, not unto us, 
but unto Thy name be glory." But each works in 
his own sphere, and all the better for that. 

There should, then, be no antagonism between 

the ministry and the laity ; no jealousy, no rivalry, 

but the utmost degree of mutual confidence and 

helpfulness. The ministry will welcome the laity 

to a share in the work of the Church as the best 

thing — because the Divinely appointed thing — for 

the laity, the ministry, and the world. 

The laity will recognize the ministry as Divinely 
i* 



io The Ministry and tJie Laity. 

appointed, called and taught by the Spirit, to ex- 
pound the oracles of God, to administer the sacra- 
ments, and be the natural leaders of the Church in 
her onset upon the hosts of darkness. 

It may happen, now and then, that some will 
ignore all church relations and go " bushwhacking " 
over the world — even sparing not the Church of 
Christ, in a sort of conceited conviction that thus 
God is to be honored. But such will always be 
sporadic, and their example is not likely to prove 
contagious. 

It may sometimes happen that a minister of the 
Gospel will become jealous of the greater success 
of his lay brethren. But this will be exceptional. 
It must be borne with patiently, as a weakness 
which will, most likely, cure itself. While the 
great army of Christian workers, ministers and lay- 
men, will forget their differences, and magnify 
their onenesses, strong in each other's strength and 
glad with a joy which is heightened in each by 
what the other feels. 



II. 



LAY-WORK AS CHURCH-WORK. 

By lay-work is meant the service of the laity in 
promoting the ends for which the Church exists. 

There is nothing that ought to be done for Christ 
and the moral improvement of the world, with 
which the Church is not bound to feel the deepest 
sympathy, and in which it is not her place to have 
a shaping hand. The mission of the Church covers 
all lands, peoples, classes, conditions. It not only 
inspires direct endeavors to make the world better, 
it welcomes the indirect as her allies. 

The Church is the spiritual host of God upon 
earth. Christ, her Head, is Captain of salvation, 
and the Bible-truth is her weapon of offense and 
defense. 

The Church is the grand reservoir of spiritual life 
and power, in the world and for the world, con- 
tinually fed from the fullness of God, for the world's 
good. 

(ii) 



12 Lay-Work as Church-Work. 

To the Church is given the commission : " Go, 
preach my gospel to every creature." Her life is 
to be aggressive. Her work is to disciple all nations ; 
and having made disciples, to instruct, edify, com- 
fort, and set them to work in the great world-field. 

The Spirit of God resides in the Church, mightily 
to endue with power and enrich with increase. 

There is nothing novel in these plain statements. 
They are rather the commonplaces of our faith. 
But we can not get along without axioms. It were 
well that we keep them in mind. Starting from 
these, lay-work is not something outside the 
Church, but of it — of her very heart and life — the 
outflow of her union with Christ. Of course, there 
can be no antagonism as between lay-work and 
church-work, as sometimes seems to be intimated. 
Lay-work is the Church fulfilling her appointed 
mission through the laity, as through the ministry 
she fulfills another part ; and so completes the circle 
of her influence. All Christian work, not exclusively 
ministerial, is lay-work. Whatever form it takes, 
under whatever name organized, whether men go 
out singly or in companies, it is still the Church 
that goes forth, and to the Church is brought the 
ingathered result, and to the Head of the Church, 



Lay- Work as Church-Work. 13 

from whom comes the efficient power, belongs the 
glory. 

It is to be assumed that there is something for 
every disciple to do. That something is a variable 
quantity. The talents range from one upward. 
Some are fitted for one sort of work, and some for 
another. Some have great versatility, and can turn 
their talents into any channel of usefulness. It 
sometimes happens that God calls from among the 
laity, men like Messrs. Moody and Whittle, to be 
evangelists of no common order. He bids them 
forth from the ranks of the Church, as He called 
David from his flocks and Elisha from his plow 
to stir up their brethren and powerfully to persuade 
men to be reconciled to God ; and indirectly, even 
to instruct the ministry how to reach men ; to dis- 
close sources of power long overlooked, and ways 
of handling the Word of God, not taught in the 
schools of theology, but given them by the Spirit 
of God. There can be no doubt of the call of these 
men to do the specific work that they attempt. 
Observe, they do not attempt to do the work of the 
stated ministry ; they do a work of awakening and 
incitement, using the Word of God as the sword of 
the Spirit. Men are converted in great numbers, 



14 Lay -Work as Church- Work. 

who are to be instructed, led on, and built up in the 
Church of Christ, through the less conspicuous, but 
patient and long-continued, labors of the stated 
ministry. It is noticeable how these Spirit-taught 
men universally honor the official minister of the 
Gospel and put no slight upon the sacred office. 

It does not fall within the scope of this little 
treatise to speak of such exceptional men, except to 
recognize them as lay-workers, as they are. We 
bless God for them. We would that all the Lord's 
people were prophets of a regal sort, versed in the 
Bible, and taught by the Spirit to win souls. 

We also recognize among the sisterhood, women, 
each powerful in her way to expound the Word, or 
plead for the outlying peoples who have not the 
Gospel. We bless God for these Spirit-taught 
women. We see in them the fulfillment of the 
word God spake by His prophet : " It shall come to 
pass, in the last days, I will pour out of my Spirit 
upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters 

shall prophesy And on my servants and on 

my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my 
Spirit ; and they shall prophesy." Some are thus 
called to give up all their time to study and service 
of a sacred character. But what especially con- 



Lay- Work as Church-Work. 15 



cerns us is to see all who love the Lord, scattered 
no matter how, going forth, as did they spoken of 
with approval in the Acts, preaching the Word. 

Here are the rank and file of the Church, to be 
utilized in this great and glorious work, though, 
for the most part, they are men and women of secu- 
lar callings and home duties, absorbing, of neces- 
sity, a great part of their time and strength. Of 
lay-work within the scope of such, we would fain 
speak. Yet not so to speak, but that any person 
able to command a day, a week, a month, now 
and then, may find here matter worthy of serious 
attention. 



III. 



THE RANGE OF LAY-WORK. 

The range of lay-work will be found quite 
ample, though you stop short of the careers of 
the great evangelists, though there should be no 
publicity about your work, though your name 
never gets into the newspapers. 

Let me briefly indicate what is meant. 

I. The Field. 

I set before you a globe on which is pictured 
the lands of the world which are thickly peopled 
with living souls. I say to you, yet not I, but 
Christ, " The field is the world ; " your field, 
though you never leave your native township, and 
have no special gifts, and are absorbed in your 
chosen vocation. For you belong to Christ. Your 
vocation is His, and Christ is for the world. 

Every soldier in the battalions of the nation 

had his company, his regiment, his division, his 
(16) 



The Range of Lay-Work. 



17 



army corps ; but they of the East and they of the 
West, the naval and the land forces, were working 
in a common cause, to one end, with the pro- 
foundest interest in each other's success or failure. 
The work of each was the work of all, though they 
did their fighting, some at one point and some at 
another. 

It can not be too heartily accepted nor too 
strongly emphasized — " The field is the world." It 
needs to be so taken home as that no one of you 
shall ever be heard saying : " I believe in Home 
Missions. I don't care a fig for Foreign Missions." 
" I don't believe in wasting time and money on 
the Indians and the Chinese ! " Or this : " I be- 
lieve in Sunday-schools, or colportage, or asso- 
ciation work, or temperance, or work for railroad 
men, and I don't care for anything else ! This 
work I am doing absorbs all my time, thought, 
energies, money ! " 

The attitude is unchristian. Such talk is harm- 
ful to the very cause at heart. The love of Christ 
enswathes the world. He was lifted up to draw 
the world to His feet. He taught us to pray, 
"Thy kingdom come." Not our kingdom, but the 
kingdom of Heaven. Our kingdom may be very 



i8 



The Range of Lay-Work. 



little. God's is very great and grand. The saved 
will be of all kindreds and tongues. How is their 
salvation to be effected ? How are they to believe? 
They will hear the Gospel. How hear? Some- 
body will preach the Word. How preach? The 
Church, you and I, will pray, and give, and send 
the living preacher and the printed page. There 
is no other way. How unwise, then, to let your 
specialty overtop the world. The world is greater 
than any one of its parts. Take It all in if you 
would do the best thing for yourself, and the 
Christ you love, and the world you seek to make 
better. Standing by the cross, we are not likely 
to make any mistake. The large-hearted Christian 
is he who remembers that the field is the world. 
The narrow and bigoted is he who thinks his patch 
the only affair of any moment. Such men run in 
ruts, instead of taking wing and rising now and 
then into the clear ether to look abroad over all 
kingdoms, and say, " All things are mine, for I am 
Christ's and Christ is God's ! " 

Christ has a right to expect that every one of 
you will pray, and work, and give, -and study to do 
this intelligently) for the coming of His kingdom in 
all the world. It is the privilege of every one to 



The Range of Lay- Work. 



19 



so inform himself as to rationally answer all cavils 
and objections to the work of missions anywhere 
on the face of the earth. It is a part of the re- 
sponsibility of every layman. It is not for one 
moment to be supposed that the intelligent Chris- 
tian Church, say, of the last fifty years — men of 
letters, statesmen, shrewd business men, deeply 
conscientious and consecrated men and women — 
has been going on year after year, investing mil- 
lions of money and precious lives in great num- 
bers, without reason or sense ! And when a lay- 
man sets about magnifying his influence in this 
direction, informing himself so as to stir up other 
souls, making money to support a teacher, min- 
ister, or school on the other side of the globe, or 
on the distant frontier of his own land, let it be 
understood that there is no more legitimate work 
than this that a layman can do. This is not said 
to the disparagement of home work, but in dissent 
from the attitude which sees nothing else but the 
needs at our own doors. 

2. Lay -work within the Church. 
Turning now to the work into which the laity 
may go in person, there comes into view, first of all, 
the local work of the Christian Church. 



20 



The Range of Lay- Work. 



In an active church this will be varied, sometimes 
tasking. And if the church is not active, the more 
need that an earnest man go to work till the fire is 
kindled. I lay stress upon this, for the hope of the 
world is, first of all, in a living Church. The- hope 
of all missionary organizations, Christian associa- 
tions, leagues of moral reform, is, first of all, in the 
Church. These measures grow out of the Church, 
not the Church out of them. They are none of 
them destined to outrun or outlive the Church of 
Christ. Their average measure of spiritual life and 
power will not exceed the average life of the church 
of their time. 

It is, therefore, not well that any man should be 
known as a Christian worker solely, outside his 
church relations. Let him first make his power 
felt at home, then when he goes forth he takes the 
sympathies and prayers of his church with him — 
a good many times more a man for this mighty sup- 
port. I am aware that this is often undervalued ; 
or, if this sympathy be desired, and is not at once 
forthcoming, men become testy or discouraged. Be 
patient. Do your duty honestly, humbly, in self- 
forgetfulness, and you will at length get all you can 
modestly ask of sympathy and support. It takes 



The Range of Lay- Work. 



21 



time to grow oaks. It takes time to knit hearts 
about one's own. It takes time to get power 
enough to command sympathy and co-operation in 
large endeavors. Be patient, and know assuredly 
that in your own church home your power should 
first be felt. Let us have living churches ; giving, 
praying, working churches, and then we shall have 
active associations and missionary boards for Chris- 
tian work in the world at large. But how can this 
ever be, if the earnest, working disciples spend their 
strength first and largely outside the local church ? 

We gladly make place for the exception. There 
may be times when an outside stir is the only thing 
that will wake up a dead church ; just as sometimes 
a work of grace seems to break in upon outsiders 
before the church is aroused. But this is not the 
rule. It has the force of an exception and no 
more. 

Let us open this lay-work in the local church 
somewhat in detail. 

First. — Do not be indifferent to anything that is 
to be done in the name of the church. It is worth 
striving after, to so hold a specialty to which we 
feel called, as at the same time to have a genuine 
interest in the work of everybody else. Your bed 



22 



The Range of Lay- Work. 



of roses in the garden will appear to much better 
advantage if all the other beds are nicely cared for. 
It is a mistake to have no interest in any work but 
( our own — not to care if all the rest of the garden be 
overrun with weeds and brambles. It matters so 
much that the chances are all against you in your 
special work, if others are not up in their special 
work too. The thing to be aimed at and striven 
for is to have the heartiest co-operation of all in 
each item of endeavor — the whole church conspir- 
ing, now to this end, now 'to that. Now, all are 
giving for some one cause. Again, all are praying 
for some brother, some soul out of Christ, some mis- 
sion-field or worker. Now, a prayer-meeting is 
being held for which all are responsible. To-mor- 
row, a sociable to fuse the life of the church calls 
all to participation. The Sabbath-school has its 
claims upon all. This society, and that band of 
workers, not only summon their respective members, 
but the sympathies of all to make an assured suc- 
cess. Let the entire work of the church be taken 
up in this way, and there is no possibility of failure. 
There is no resisting the might of such concert of 
heart, and prayer, and effort. Not to do this is not 
to be loyal to the divine ideal of the Church as the 



The Range of Lay -Work. 



23 



body of Christ, which makes every member a suf- 
fering or rejoicing factor in the experience of every 
other member. It is to mar the beauty of the 
household idea in the church. And how often is 
it marred by disjointing our theory and our prac- 
tice. Hold them together and insist that our theory 
shall run out into practice, and you revolutionize 
the actually current life in most of our churches. 

Second. — Go into the sanctuary on the Sabbath. 
Worship is in the ascendant, but here is also a serv- 
ice with ends beyond itself, the hour, the place, or 
the worshipers. Begin your work as a layman. 
Lift your heart with the minister mightily in prayer. 
Do not be lazy, or listless, or unbelieving, or gazing 
about the house of God. Pray earnestly and im- 
portunately that the opportunity may not be wasted. 
Enter into praise in the same spirit. Listen to the 
Word as for your lives. Are offerings of money 
called for, make an offering, be it ever so small, only 
do it willingly and according to your ability. Do 
not excuse yourself because you can not do much. 
Little is often very much. The poor may be great- 
hearted in giving their very small sums. The 
Master has His own way of reckoning. It is far 
other than the style of the market-place. 



24 



The Range of Lay-Work. 



These are simple, ever-recurring opportunities 
where the laity should make themselves felt much 
more than they do. And when the Word is preached, 
pray and listen, for to preach it over and over in the 
life of the week is that for which the church is left in 
the world. It is probable that many who have 
never found anything they could do for Christ, have 
quite overlooked the Sabbath-service as a sphere in 
which to begin. I insist that just because of regard- 
ing the sanctuary as a sort of saint's rest where 
nothing is expected of worshipers but that they 
yield themselves passively to be wrought upon, the 
service has ordinarily been shorn of much of its 
power. 

Third. — Pass to the social meeting for prayer, 
praise, and conference. Here the personality of 
the laity is to express itself, as in the pulpit the 
personality of the ministry is felt. It ought, in 
some way, to be very generally so. To learn how 
to promote a live, edifying, spiritual prayer-meet- 
ing is a great acquisition. A prayer-meeting of 
this sort is an achievement. It is worth study, 
prayer, thought, to learn how to ensure this. 

Prayer-meetings are killed, sometimes by the 
leader, sometimes by the led ; or those who ought 



The Range of Lay-Work. 



25 



to be led and are not. Except in extraordinary 
cases, to read a long chapter, and sing long hymns, 
and make long and rambling prayers, is to kill a 
meeting. It must have great vitality to endure 
this and not be killed. Usually when the leader 
says, I will read such a chapter, the announcement 
sends a chill through every earnest soul. Not the 
chapter, but the probability that the whole meet- 
ing will be pointless, tedious, limited to three or 
four persons. 

A prayer-meeting is a delicate thing to handle. 
To lead a meeting well is so great an achievement 
that only here and there one can do it. I suspect 
the reason to be, that lurking in the heart of many 
is the mischievous notion — " Anybody can lead a 
prayer-meeting/' No man so esteeming it will stir 
himself up as for some truly difficult achievement. 
If a leader can come to it warm, prayerful, with 
snatches of kindling and comforting song at com- 
mand, a short, well-selected portion of Scripture 
and a pointed, suggestive word about it, sending it 
home to the hearts of the people, so that they will 
want to say something and can not help praying ; 
not too learned, not overshadowing, never reading 

from a book or paper, or if so, not more than the 
2 



26 



The Range of Lay- Work. 



briefest paragraph — all this in about fifteen minutes, 
there is a fair probability that the meeting will be 
a success. 

Even when the meeting has been well opened, 
thought set running and devotion kindled, it is 
quite possible that some brother may get up, and 
starting from some frigid zone of feeling and inter- 
est, move forward into the Divine presence with 
a formal introduction, and on to an " appro- 
priate " close ; and when done, the effect upon the 
meeting is much like that of an iceberg moving 
down from polar seas upon the waters it invades ! 
The figure must not be pursued further, for a meet- 
ing does not usually last long enough to melt such. 
Why should anybody do so ? The prayers of a 
social meeting should be fragmentary, spontaneous, 
burdened with some definite need, and the unity, if 
that is essential, be sought in the continual pray- 
ing of all, from the leader's to the closing prayer. 
It would put new life into almost any meeting, if 
the formal prayers and the traditional phraseology 
could all be left at home. If a request for prayer 
comes, let it be taken up heartily and left without 
first offering a generalizing prayer, upon which to 
tack the special petition. It is really worth while 



The Range of Lay- Work. 



27 



to rise to one's feet, to pray for one soul — just to 
say, and mean it, " God be merciful to me a sin- 
ner " — to recite a verse of Scripture or sacred song, 
and say how it has been helpful ; this and nothing 
more. To sit and say a word or two in a social 
meeting is really well worth while. It is not 
always quite easy to do these simple tilings. But 
it is something to see that such simple things are 
worth doing, at any cost. That they must be done 
by somebody, if the social meetings of the church 
are to be quickening and helpful, is certain. The 
most efficient in such service have generally fought 
the toughest of battles to overcome their hin- 
derances. They were once timid to a degree which 
lost them all command of their thoughts the mo- 
ment they rose to their feet. This has certainly 
been true of some of the best lay-workers I ever 
knew. They battled for success and won. It 
needs humility and sanctified purpose to persevere 
upon a basis of common sense and piety. This 
only. But, unfortunately, many people are too 
proud to ever be good for much in a prayer-meet- 
ing. If they could pray and talk like some eminent 
saint who has been through all manner of tribula- 
tions : wounded pride, advice to be silent, tempta- 



28 The Range of Lay- Work. 



tions of the devil — if they could edify as he seems 
to, they would speak and pray. Can ye drink of 
their cup ? Will ye be baptized with their baptism ? 

Better yet, be childlike. Enter the church, the 
work of the church, the study of the Bible, as a 
little child. Creep, then walk ; stumble, then stand ; 
stammer, then talk. We are satisfied if our chil- 
dren are men and women by and by. But where is 
the young convert that is willing to be a man by 
and by ? He wants to start with the eloquence of 
a Storrs, the versatility of a Beecher, the fire of a 
Moody. He wants to go into conic sections befo e 
he has mastered addition. He would read Homer 
before he has learned the Greek alphabet. To suc- 
ceed as a lay-worker in the prayer-meeting, as else- 
where, a man must be willing to fail. He must think 
very little of the honor to accrue to himself, and 
very much of the honor to accrue to Christ. 

Let it go around, from heart to heart, among the 
sisterhood as well — for are they not of the laity ? — 
a word, a short prayer, a verse of Scripture, a bit ot 
experience, a simple incident, a question, a verse ot 
sacred song, shall be my contribution to the social 
gatherings of prayer and praise which I am privi- 
leged to attend. And to do this better and better 



The Range of Lay-Work. 29 



shall be my prayerful study, as if it were indeed an 
acquisition worth the pains it is likely to cost. 

Fourth. — Come into the Bible school. 

Here is work for every layman; and grand work 
it is. Teach, if you are needed as a teacher. Go 
into the library if wanted there, but go into a class 
if you can. Count this the thing to be coveted ; 
and if called out of it to teach, always plan to go 
back to it, if the way is open. Never get too old 
to be in a class as a learner. Never imagine you 
have learned all there is to be learned out of that 
wonderful Book. Imagine the amazing conceit of 
a young man who offered himself as a teacher. 
There being no vacant class at the time, he was in- 
vited to go into a Bible-class, but declined, actually 
saying that " he had studied the Bible enough, and 
did not care to go in unless they wanted a teacher ! " 

You may be called to be a superintendent, a 
teacher, or a scholar. The work varies with the 
position, but the opportunity to be an earnest, 
progressive, enthusiastic worker is to be found in 
either place. 

If a scholar, make it your business to be regular, 
prompt, well prepared in the lesson ; to bring in 
others and fill the class to overflowing ; to promote 



30 The Range of Lay- Work. 

esprit du corps, and make the class-life wholesome 
and stimulating. How many never go into a class 
except as so many passive receptacles, seeing in 
this no sphere for aggressive Christian work. 

If a teacher, be regular, prompt, well-versed in 
the Scriptures, enthusiastic. Get your scholars to 
do what has just been suggested as their privilege 
to do. Draw the class around you and teach, out 
of a full head and a warm heart, the lesson you 
have so well mastered as to dispense with lesson 
papers and notes altogether. Talk and question 
out of yourself, charged with the truth and its 
practical bearings, and never bring into a class 
your lesson helps to be as a sheet of ice between 
you and them. In the week go to their homes, 
get them to yours, conquer their hearts, then lead 
them to the living Word and through the Word to 
Christ. Believe you have got a great mission, 
which is nothing less than to anchor these souls to 
Christ and usefulness in the world. To have done 
this, and to keep doing it, is to have done a grand 
work. Oh, how grand, as time goes on, to follow 
the classes thus led, and see these boys and girls 
go out at length as men and women consecrated 
to kindred work for the Master. Look into their 



The Range of Lay-Work. 31 

eyes and forecast their future, and say, " God help- 
ing me, I will save them from the slippery ways of 
death. Christ shall have them for Himself ! " There 
is noisier work than this which laymen aspire to, 
but my firm belief is, that to have mastered the art 
of teaching and winning young souls to Christ, and 
then to have followed it up week after week for a 
score or two of years, is to have done what can 
seldom be rivaled in any department of Christian 
service. 

You may be a superintendent. Next to being a 
minister of the Gospel, I should covet the fitness 
and then the position. Indeed, few preachers can 
claim to have done so much for Christ as some of 
the superintendents of famed Bible schools in our 
great cities. The same is no doubt true of many 
more unknown to fame. First of all, aim to be 
prompt, warm-hearted, prayerful, full but not gush- 
ing, studying the child-mind as well as the Bible, 
and getting the teachers and scholars to do what 
we have just intimated they ought to do. Let the 
inspiration flowing from Christ into your soul, flow 
from you to every teacher and scholar. Be a pro- 
gressive man. See that the devotional exercises 
enlist everybody — singing, reading, recitations of 



32 



The Range of Lay- Work. 



Scripture, prayer. The more of concert in all this 
the better, even to the prater. Formal addresses 
and prayer, such as befit a social meeting of adults, 
are not to be commended. The prayer of this serv- 
ice should voice the needs of those present. It 
ought to touch the child-heart. It ought to 
be their prayer, not prayer for them. The 
leader should put himself, as it were, down into 
the midst of the school and be their mouth- 
piece. I believe it well that the school often take 
up the prayer, sentence by sentence, after the 
leader. It insures adaptation on the part of the 
leader to the needs and apprehension of children. 
It secures attention on the part of the school. I 
am glad talking superintendents have gone out of 
fashion — excessive talkers, I mean. There should 
be, under his direction, and by him or the pastor, 
short, pointed applications of lessons, brief and 
thorough reviews, and such illustration by the 
blackboard, object-lessons, and maps as he is able 
to wield successfully. There ought to be no prej- 
udice against these methods of enforcing truth ; 
there can be no blind or automatic following of 
other people's plans, if a man is to be successful. 
Every man called to such a post of honor and in- 



The Range of Lay- Work. 



33 



fluence needs to work by a method of his own. It 
is questionable whether any man is so called who 
does not become something of an enthusiast in it ; 
a sort of condensed Bible school, lugging it in 
everywhere, and having it crowd his dreams with 
faces sweet as the face of an angel. 

Not many of you will be called to this. Some 
of you are or will be. Look to it that you do not 
belittle it in any way, either to your own thought or 
in your practice, as if it were a thing for odd mo- 
ments and scraps of time, a work within the reach 
of any man ! If you have the idea that " any- 
body can run a Sunday-school/' be certain that 
you have no call in this direction. The dignity 
and the greatness of this work has not yet dawned 
upon your soul. 

Fifth. — The local work of the church will em- 
brace various committee or society responsibilities 
for specific ends, which are useful in proportion to 
the zeal, earnestness, and discretion of individuals. 
It is not a refreshing sight to see such committees 
made up, or such societies organized and never 
hear from them again. If there was need to con- 
stitute them at all, there is need that every one 
thus made responsible be found faithful and re- 

2* 



34 



The Range of Lay- Work. 



liable. Such committees, societies, or mission bands 
have it in their power to help make the church a 
busy hive of Christian industry and social fellow- 
ship, drawing to it for their good those who are 
without, interesting and edifying those who are 
within, and opening many a channel of benevo- 
lence, for which needy and thirsty souls will give 
praise to God. Every such organization should 
ring with life and be redolent with prayer, and 
love, and usefulness. It should always hold itself 
subordinate to the official direction of the church, 
and work in harmony with it. It should never 
assume the reins, nor imagine that the church ex- 
ists for its sake, rather than it for the sake of the 
church, her growth and her usefulness. 

Not to dwell upon what must vary with each 
local church and its mission, let me say, that the 
phase of lay-work now dwelt upon, work in the 
church-home of the soul, unheralded service, may 
be, not noised abroad, humble, sometimes appar- 
ently of little account, is the phase that ought 
first to meet the Christian disciple as he enters the 
household of faith. Let him first try his hand at 
some of these things. Here let him be proved, 
and become indoctrinated and versed in methods 



The Range of Lay- Work. 



35 



of doing good ; the world may then want him in a 
wider though not a richer field. There is none 
richer or more fruitful. Let him first be able to 
give a reason for the hope that is in him, then 
move upon others and do the work that comes 
first at hand. 

The church in which these sentiments, as to the 
work of the laity, take practical shape must needs 
be a living power for Christ. It will never stop 
with the work to be done within its own fold. It 
will reach out to desolate neighborhoods around ; 
it will be felt to the ends of the earth. 

Let me also add this other word. Anybody dis- 
daining such work as I have named, not known in 
his church as a worker, is a man, with rare excep- 
tions, never to be endorsed for any outside work 
whatever. Let him first exercise his gifts at home, 
and prove himself possessed of a right spirit and 
of good common sense— then bid him God-speed 
into the wider world, if God wants him and men 
will receive him. It is safe to say that men will 
receive whom God indeed sends, and they will 
want more and more of him. Sometimes men re- 
ceive those whom they will soon cordially dispense 
with — men whom God, most likely, never sent. 



36 The Range of Lay- Work. 

And when it is thought that in the sphere of the 
local church the great majority of disciples are to 
do their work for the Master, the emphasis to be 
laid upon it, covering its dignity, its worth, and its 
importance, can not well be exaggerated. To be 
fitted for it and to do it well, is worth any man's 
heartiest consecration. 

3. Lay-work outside the Church. 

We come now to consider that sphere of lay- 
work which lies outside the ordinary appointments 
of church-service, and may justly be expected to 
follow. The work of which we speak may or may 
not be under the direction of the local church or 
any organization, and is characterized, in part, by 
publicity; in part, is unobserved of men. It 
should rejoice the heart of every worker in the 
vineyard of the Lord that there are very many 
busy in doing good of whom mention will never 
be made till the judgment. They tread such quiet, 
unnoticed paths ; they so shrink from observation 
that but few are really aware of the breadth and 
result of their endeavor. 

Such is the unobtrusive visiting of families, 
opening the Scriptures, at fitting times kneeling 



The Range of Lay-Work. 



37 



with them in prayer, leaving a quickening word, 
a wholesome book, counselling to habits of sobriety 
and being the good Samaritan, in Christ's name, to 
families, youth and children, who else would be 
habitually and only under the tuition of the evil 
one and his emissaries. 

Such is the word dropped by the wayside, the 
note indicative of fraternal interest or deep solici- 
tude, the wayside conversation, the invitation to 
the home-circle, thus to fasten a cord around a 
heart, which thereby may be led to Christ. 

I lay stress upon this unheralded service with 
individuals and families, in humble cottages, board- 
ing-houses and shops, in prisons, hospitals, poor- 
houses and schools of reform, for several reasons. 

Here is found one of the best spheres for the 
culture of a genuine, earnest, well-balanced piety. 
The best of motives are called into exercise. It is 
a work which will foster a love for Christ and a 
sense of His nearness. Indeed, it is not likely to 
be carried on at all except under the impulse of 
love to Christ and a passion for the salvation of 
men. 

It is a sphere in which every man of good sense 
may do a work for Christ, and find all his resources 



38 



The Range of Lay-Work. 



called into requisition. The absence of common 
sense is a thorough disqualification for any work of 
which we now speak. But starting with this, 
speech is a universal gift ; influence is a universal 
gift ; sanctified, they make every soul a power for 
good, and make futile the excuses for doing 
nothing which are often multiplied. 

Then, again, this sort of lay-work puts stress 
upon life, rather than public occasions. It needs 
no argument to show that a profoundly consistent 
life makes a word dropped, here and there, of more 
value than the most ostentatious service without 
this support. He that has so learned to live that 
others take knowledge of him, in every-day affairs, 
as one taught and led by Christ, has no second- 
rate equipment for doing the Lord's work. And 
when to this is added the tact which comes 
through contact with men and the use of the 
sword of the Spirit in these quiet ways, we are 
face to face with a man whom it is worth while to 
send forth in more demonstrative ways of useful- 
ness. 

Publicity in Christian work is not a sin, nor is 
secrecy a virtue. Doing any service for God, to be 
seen of men, has its reward — the scorching penalty 



The Range of Lay-Work. 



39 



of hypocrisy. But on the other hand, from the 
highest authority issues the command to every 
disciple, " Let your light so shine before men that 
others seeing your good works may glorify your 
Father which is in heaven." So to shine will lead 
many into more public paths than those just 
noticed. But it is to be said that they have 
temptations peculiar to themselves. In some, work 
of a public character fosters just that which ought 
to be suppressed. It is a forcing process instead 
of a healthy growth. It turns their thought too 
much from Christ to themselves. Meaning, in all 
honesty, to hold Him up, they are almost certain 
to be deeply concerned about their own reputation, 
their success, how they get along ; to be, at times, 
humiliated more from personal mortification than 
concern for the honor of the Master ; at times 
elated with pride, rather than soberly joyful that 
Christ was affectingly held up to the view of men. 
A man happy and successful in obscure and quiet 
paths is almost certain to be sound in the faith, 
with a power within that will bear sending out into 
the larger world. While a man with an itch for 
publicity, and unwilling to do anything except in a 
public way, is much more likely to be mistaken as 



40 The . Range of Lay-Work. 

to the grounds of his personal faith and hope, and 
to be lifted up himself rather than to be found 
knowing only Christ and Him crucified. 

Therefore, I believe it is a mistake to send out 
new converts and quite young men to address con- 
gregations of people here and there — and espe- 
cially if they happen to have been dissipated men 
heretofore. A place might be found for the re- 
cital of their experience, under the direction of 
experienced Christians, but it were better not to 
make haste even thus far. The good of seeing 
such men testifying to their new convictions and 
the saving power of Christ is more than counter- 
balanced by the inevitable instinct which distrusts 
them till they have first been proved, and which 
unfortunately finds too good reason for distrust in 
the lamentable failure of many so-Called reformed 
men. Unquestionably they should have the hearty 
sympathy of the Christian public, and every en- 
couragement to hold on and out, for Christ is able 
to make them stand, and the Church has a place 
and a work for them. But let the public work, 
from which men of ripest culture and piety find 
themselves shrinking, be approached by slow de- 
grees. Then the crudities of inexperience will not 



The Range of Lay- Work. 



41 



be forced upon audiences who need the steady 
guidance and impulse of experience somewhat 
mature, and of heads well stored with the thoughts 
of God. 

It is a thing to be deplored when a prevailing 
impression is abroad that lay-work is nothing if it 
be not occupied in calling conventions, holding 
public meetings, and addressing assemblies. The 
world is not perishing for this above all things, but 
it is greatly burdened that so few are willing to 
take up a quiet, unobtrusive, unostentatious work 
in the boarding-houses, among the poor, in the 
shops, among the homeless young men and women 
of village and city, in the lanes and by-ways, ex- 
tending a warm greeting to the stranger, looking 
after him, drawing him from the theaters and sa- 
loons by personal acquaintance and influence. 

Let it be accepted that here is a grand sphere 
for lay-effort. On the face of it, presumptively, 
this is preeminently the outside work, appealing 
to all who are qualified and willing to work for 
Christ at all ; to be left only when special fitness 
and the Divine call bids : " Go out abroad, call 
men together and preach the Gospel of the King- 
dom." 



42 



The Range of Lay- Work, 



The success of famed laymen in public work, so 
far from throwing into the shade such quiet ways 
of doing good, so far from stirring up a great com- 
pany of lay-evangelists, should have just the oppo- 
site result ; the result of making men thoughtful 
and hesitant, lest they run before they are sent. 
Their work is so manifestly wrought of God through 
them ; it lies so far beyond being accounted for on 
purely natural grounds, that every serious man 
must needs ask himself, Has God given me this 
endowment, and does He want me as such an in- 
strument ? If so, there is but one thing for him to 
do ; and but one thing for the Church to do, besides 
supporting him in his work, and that is, be stirred 
up, every man who loves the Lord, to magnify his 
own influence and use his talents in the sphere that 
lies nearest to him, even as they do in theirs. 

This must suffice to indicate the range of lay- 
work. The field is broad enough, and the work 
varied enough to utilize all the talent of the 
Church ; work for the weakest, for the strongest, 
work for men, women, and children. All classes, 
conditions, and climes are to be covered by lay- 
effort in heartiest sympathy and cooperation with 
the ministry of the Church. And whether done by 



The Range of Lay-Work. 



43 



churches as such, or through Missionary Boards, or 
Christian Associations and Christian Temperance 
Leagues, it is none the less Church work, whose 
garnered sheaves are laid at the feet of the Lord. 
And what times are these in which we live, when 
children have become a great factor in the evan- 
gelization of the world, and the sisterhood of the 
Church are jealously sought by all the Boards of 
the Church, as best qualified not only to teach, but 
to fill the depleted treasuries of benevolent organ- 
izations. 



IV. 



THE SPECIFIC END OF LAY-WORK. 

No matter what the department or what specific 
form of lay-work comes to the front, the end to be 
sought, the achievement in which effort culminates, 
is to win men to Christ. If you feed the hungry, 
or clothe the naked, or kindle a fire on the cold 
hearth, or put a nosegay into the hand of the sick, 
or teach a class in the Bible-school, or attend a 
cottage prayer-meeting, or approach a stranger to 
bring him into social relations, the effort of the 
hour is supposed to look beyond to some eternal 
result. The impression left upon us by the study 
of the Gospels is that this was habitually in the 
mind of our Lord — through the bodies to reach the 
souls of men and impart an eternal benefit. Let it 
be accepted, the great business of the church is to 
win men to Christ, making even her humanitarian 
schemes to minister to this sublime end. Other 
men may do a great deal of good while aiming not 
(44) 



The Specific End of Lay- Work. 45 

at all at this. The Christian worker must, of neces- 
sity, often stop short of it. But not to aim at it is 
to make a grievous mistake ; is to miss the choicest 
of opportunities. For the heart that is softened 
by kindness is most easily led ; and led by no one 
so readily as by a benefactor. It is not to be 
wondered at that our missionaries find the hospital 
in foreign lands a powerful adjunct to their en- 
deavors at evangelization ; or that men, saved from 
famine in Persia or India, through the benefactions 
of Christian strangers, are led to listen to the story 
of the Gospel with more willing ears. There is not 
only no occasion for wonder in this, but it is right 
that it should appear how our benevolence links it- 
self with our Christian civilization, and that, with 
Christ himself ; and to use it to bring the people 
nearer to Him. It is, therefore, not a refreshing 
spectacle to see the church, or any association of 
Christian people, instituting one measure and an- 
other, good enough in themselves, but with no ul- 
terior end beyond the satisfactions of the hour. 

The delicacy of this business of winning souls is 
not enough thought of. The method of some 
to rush into it as if handling old iron or beat- 
ing a bass drum, is quite shocking to a sensi- 



46 The Specific End of Lay- Work. 

tive mind, and often hurtful to the last degree. 
The reserve which most people feel in reference 
to laying bare their inmost thought, the pain- 
ful burden borne in silence, often so long, the 
shrinking from observation, the Nicodemus-like 
approach of many souls to Christ for light, ought 
to instruct us to walk softly here. Rudeness, 
harshness, bluntness, the off-hand, slap-on-the- 
shoulder, " How's your soul to-day? " are offensive 
not only, they do harm, often immeasurable harm. 
The delicacy of the attempt to win men need not 
deter us from effort or tie our hands. It needs 
simply to be accepted that such is its nature, and 
brooded over, and allowed to influence our ap- 
proaches to men ; and none the less, though it is 
possible to quote some eminent names and very 
useful men as practicing the very methods we 
deplore. Happily we have some illuscrious models 
in the persons of Christ and His Apostles, to 
whom it were far wiser to give heed. 

The universality of the gift for winning souls is 
not enough considered. I hold that everybody is 
somebody's oracle. No soul is so inconsequential 
but that it may draw some other to itself. If this 
be true, let every one use that power for Christ. No 



The Specific End of Lay- Work. 



47 



soul need wear a starless crown in the kingdom of 
heaven. It is not a question of learning, but of 
living and shining ; not of doing great things, but 
out of the loving heart putting forth the tendrils 
which fasten delicately, but firmly, on another heart. 
It is often done beautifully by children. It needs 
always a child-like spirit. 

The simplicity of this work is not enough dwelt 
upon. I do not mean that of instruction and nur- 
ture, but of winning men ; setting them to thinking, 
inquiring, feeling after God, praying in secret, at 
length to cry out, " Men and brethren, what shall 
we do?" then, if need be, to be taken in. hand by 
others for guidance and instruction. How often a 
word fitly spoken, a question artlessly put, the gen- 
uine interest of the heart expressed, however simply, 
is the first link in a chain of causes leading to a new 
life. Could more fitting words have been spoken to 
the haughty Syrian general by any professor of the 
schools than the Jewish, captive 'maid's : " My 
father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great 
thing wouldst thou not have done it ? How much 
rather when he saith unto thee, wash and be clean ? " 
Simplicity always lends a charm to spiritual effort, 
of whatever sort. 



V. 



QUALIFICATIONS. 

THE qualifications for lay-work are, as far as 
they go, the same as for ministerial service. Prep- 
aration for the ministry differs rather in degree than 
in kind. I name among the very first — a genuine 
humility. I know of no work or place where hu- 
mility does not appear at advantage. But in 
Christian work, of all things, let pride and conceit 
be put away, and a genuine humility clothe every 
one who hopes to get access to other souls and 
lead them to the light. We are not prepared to 
talk with sinners unless we have a deep sense of 
being ourselves sinners, saved by grace. And so, 
when approaching men in the name of Christ, we 
do well to embrace ourselves in our conversation 
and prayers. Use the first persons plural, and 
speak of our sins — our needs — what Christ has 
done for us — God's mercy to us — how we have 

requited Him. Sitting down by some hardened 
(48) 



Qualifications. 



49 



man, may be, use the words that yoke yourself 
with him as in the same condemnation, instead of 
standing off, you the saint and he the sinner, and 
his will be a very hard heart, if it does not soften. 
This is quite as true of public as of private address, 
except in extraordinary occasions, like some of 
our Lord's encounters with the Pharisees, when 
one must needs remove himself as far as pos- 
sible from the sin he condemns. But you will ob- 
serve the object of such address is not to win. 

It follows that there are very many harangues 
at congregations of sinners which were far better 
left unsaid. Denunciation is not winning. Any- 
thing that separates a Christian man from those he 
seeks to help and save — except the fact that, 
though a miserable sinner, God has had mercy 
upon him, and put a new song into his mouth, and 
therefore he has what the other has not, and shows 
it — ought to be buried out of sight. What is said, 
both as to matter and manner, one's dress and 
bearing, should never be allowed to contravene the 
impression of being a genuinely humble man. 
What is needed at this point is to get down with 
the lowest, heart to heart, and say, " Come, let us 

go to Christ. He invites us. He will receive us. 
3 



50 



Qualifications. 



Let us go to Him." All this is genuinely becom- 
ing. There is nothing put on for effect. In the 
deepest sense, there is no difference at the critical 
point of need. If our walks are among the poor, 
manifestly, for our own ease and comfort as well 
as on their account, it were well to go in plain 
apparel — not shabby, but plain — to go informally 
and put them at their ease ; and with considera- 
tion, not patronizingly, as went the Master.* 

2. Closely allied with this is self -for get fulness. A 
self-conscious man, moving among others, leaves 
the impression of condescension as toward them, 
and of being quite indispensable to the Lord. 
The man who seems never to think of himself, or 
his doings, or of being anything but an instrument 
upon which and through which the Divine Spirit 
works to win men to Christ, thereby greatly en- 
hances his usefulness. And so to seem he must 
really feel it. 

Perhaps it is not amiss to say that Mr. Moody 
seems to have attained this virtue to a wondefful 

* This point is beautifully illustrated by Dr. Arnold's letter 
to one who refused to see the clergyman of the parish or to 
allow his friends to speak to him on religious subjects. Let- 
ter 82, Am. Ed. 



Qualifications. 



5* 



degree. One more honored of the Divine Spirit 
since Apostolic times it would be difficult to 
name. But he seldom speaks of his doings. He 
seems always purposely to turn attention from 
himself and to prefer to be hidden behind the 
cross. That smallest of words " I," which towers 
like a mountain in the speech of so many lesser 
men, is kept small, and God in Christ overshadows 
all. The same is true of most greatly useful men 
and women. Keep that " I " out of sight, I be- 
seech you. Tell what the Lord has done and leave 
men to guess what " I " did. Be content to be a 
voice, a "persuasive voice " if the Lord will, on 
which the Divine message may flow to the hearts 
of men. 

3. A useful man must be full of loving earnest- 
ness. This is zeal, and it is more ; it is tender as 
well as hot. There must be fire if wood is to be 
kindled. Speech must be stirring if men are to be 
moved. The heart must glow if the message is to 
tell. Nothing can be more out of place than a man 
going forth to talk to his fellows of Christ, or to 
address a congregation on sacred themes, because 
he thinks he must, or that somehow it is to min- 
ister to his own advantage. The theme is so mo- 



52 



Qualifications. 



mentous, the interests at stake are so immense, 
that men instinctively reject a lukewarm man. Let 
him first get his own heart aflame, and then the 
message will be fused in it and men will listen be- 
cause they can not help it. That man has our 
cordial sympathy who, being really earnest at 
heart, is somehow so overladen with a sluggish 
manner of thought and expression that all he says 
gets cool before it reaches his audience. We need 
to leave upon men the impression of being tre- 
mendously in earnest. Find a man greatly useful 
in the cause of Christ, either as a layman or a 
minister, and you will find a man in earnest. Two 
little books written by John Angell James, entitled 
" An Earnest Ministry " and " The Church in 
Earnest," are so well calculated to kindle the be- 
liever's soul, that it seems a pity they are not 
familiar to all of this generation. The loving ear- 
nestness of this saintly soul well qualified him to 
speak to the Church of his time of that which he 
so well illustrated in his life. 

This quality of which we speak is something 
not easily counterfeited. Like sincerity, with 
which it ought ever to be in wedlock, it commends 
itself, when genuine, through the voice, the eye, 



Qualifications. 



53 



the expression, the manner, before the people and 
in private, so as seldom to be mistaken. It is a 
native quality of the soul ingrained by the truth of 
God and fused by His Spirit. 

4. There is also needed a pervading reverence for 
sacred things. This can not be insisted upon too 
earnestly. Reverence need not throw us into sanc- 
timonious ways and tones ; but, being natural and 
seemly, will hold us back from that familiar way of 
speaking of the most awful and sacred themes 
which can but shock a sensitive nature. Many, in 
their zeal to make religious matters the subject of 
familiar conversation, do grossly prejudice the 
serious mind against all their endeavors to do good, 
by their shocking irreverence and " vulgar chatter " 
while dealing with truths of infinite moment. 

5. Tact. — Being humble, self-forgetful, earnest, 
and reverent, there is needed, preeminently, tact in 
reaching men, and a clear, sound view of the 
Gospel way of salvation. 

Many seem not to think this very essential in 
doing good. It seems to them rather a profane 
intrusion into sacred matters to talk about the 
wisdom of the serpent and the harmlessness of 
the dove in getting at men. Experience is prob- 



54 Qualifications. 

ably the only teacher whom such will be likely to 
respect — and her tuition is often dearly bought. 

How serious a matter this is, will at once appear, 
when it is remembered that there are as many 
avenues to human hearts as there are hearts to be 
approached. To know which one to traverse in a 
given case, to get a soul to be willing to let you in, 
and so to open your message as not to have the door 
closed and barred against you ; to take an audience 
and first draw them into a listening attitude — calls 
for discretion. To know how far to go this time, 
to choose occasions, to discover by a happy intu- 
ition whether the mood is favorable and seize the 
opportune moment to let fly the arrow of Gospel 
truth, calls for thoughtful consideration and a happy 
tact, such as will not commonly be found except in 
a man ever on the alert, and in intimate communion 
with the Spirit of God, who searcheth all things. 
This is sanctified common sense. No ordinary em- 
phasis belongs to that word sanctified in this con- 
nection. In all Christian work, preeminently in 
this of leading men to Christ, to ignore or slight 
the quickening and guiding agency of the Holy 
Spirit is suicidal. 

Without sanctified tact a man will be crowding 



Qualifications. 



55 



in upon others when burdened with business, or 
heated with passion, or hurrying off on a journey, 
or surrounded by his companions, in no mood to 
be singled out, then and there, for serious admo- 
nition. It is doubtless true, in the abstract, that 
men ought to be willing to seek first the kingdom 
of God, and at once to welcome that obligation. 
We have, among other things, to see to it that we 
do not drive them farther from the kingdom by our 
imprudence. We desire to get this great matter 
fairly before them, and we can not ordinarily do it 
except as we watch for the fitting moment. We 
need tact in our endeavors at winning men. 

6. We need, not less, a clear conception of the way 
of salvation. The more thoroughly versed in the 
Scriptures a man is, the better ; but the How to be 
saved ; the answer to that ofttimes urgent question, 
What shall I do ? is a matter that every disciple 
ought to study so as to present it with clearness. 
It is a humiliating thing for one who has found 
Christ, not to be able, intelligently, to point an in- 
quirer to Him. It is a serious matter to give mis- 
leading directions. Erroneous teaching at this 
point may encourage false hopes, may set a man on 
the track of legality instead of grace, may make it 



56 



Qualifications. 



almost certain that after a little while the supposed 
convert will be found back again in the ranks which 
he thought he had left, but in all which he was mis- 
taken. The counsel given to inquirers in the mo- 
ments of their eager search will often be found to 
run through all after-life. We want genuine con- 
versions, not reformations simply. We want the 
whole soul for Christ, and Christ received as the 
one, complete Saviour for the soul, and now ; not 
souls set on the track of self-improvement to be 
saved chiefly by their own exertions, Christ coming 
in to make up their defects. 

In my judgment, this is one of the points where 
the lay-work of our time is most at fault, often 
harmful. The Gospel is perverted and souls are 
misled. To tell men, whose ear you have got, how 
to be saved — this clearly, simply, only — is a matter 
for most prayerful thought. Men of large ex- 
perience in the ministry have noted how much 
more clearly they can do this at some times than at 
others ; how the Holy Spirit, at times, sets this mat- 
ter in wondrous clearness before the mind. How 
much more, then, do the inexperienced need to fa- 
miliarize themselves with God's way of saving men ? 
I know of no study that ought to go before this. 

There is a very simple preliminary test which 



Qualifications. 



57 



any man can apply to himself just here. Let him 
ask himself the question, — " If an inquiring soul 
were to come to me, just now, for light and guid- 
ance, saying, ' What shall I do to be saved ? ' what 
would I say to him ? Suppose I should say, ' Go to 
Christ ; ' and he should ask, ' What is it to go to 
Christ ? ' ' How shall I go to Him ? ' Believe. < What 
is it to believe ? ' Repent. ' What is it to repent ? ' " 
Can you give an answer to these inquiries, satis- 
factory to yourself? A kindred emphasis falls on 
the inquiry — What motive shall I employ in speak- 
ing to men to lead them to consider their ways and 
turn to the Lord ? 

As I have intimated, this must be regarded as a 
most vital matter, to be made sure of by all lay- 
workers, as well for their own sake as for others' 
sake, lest the blind lead the blind and both fall into 
the ditch. 

There is usually left the resource of seeking a 
counselor of experience in a mutual friend, to 
whom you will resort with such as you can per- 
suade to accompany you. It were better always 
so, than to give blinding or misleading directions ; 
but how much better to be prepared for any 
emergency by a thorough study of the Scripture 
response to such vital inquiries. 



VI. 



MISTAKES. 

In considering some of the mistakes of lay-work, it 
will occurtoyou that they are not peculiar to the laity. 
They are not to be ignored, however, because many, 
if not all of them, are often chargeable upon minis- 
ters of the Gospel as well. Some of them are such 
as are liable to occur in public address and private 
conversation on religious subjects, even in well-in- 
formed circles. Nor will it be expected that I shall 
do more than hint at a few, and only with a view of 
enhancing your usefulness. 

It will occur to you that we have already touched, 
incidentally, upon many things which might be 
grouped under the head of mistakes. But leav- 
ing them to stand as they are, let me indicate, still 
further, some which are incidental and some which 
are vital. 

Incidental Mistakes. — Of these I have hinted when 
speaking of manner in address and in approaching 
(58) 



Mistakes. 



59 



men — of adaptation even to the matter of the ap- 
parel to be worn in reaching certain classes, so that 
the first impression may be always that of a man in 
earnest, a man humble, sincere, hidden by the cross, 
and moved by unaffected love for the souls of men. 

Mistakes are often made at this point which bur- 
den or block the way of all after-attempts at suc- 
cessful approach to those whom we wish to win to 
Christ. 

Passing on, it seems clear that — 

i. Sensationalism — things said and done just for 
effect — is to be ranked among the mistakes which 
are by no means infrequent. The less one really 
has to say, the more is he tempted in this direction. 
The more superficial the man, the more certainly 
will he run into this to make up or cover up his de- 
ficiences. There is no objection to a legitimate sen- 
sation. We must have it, or apathy reigns, and 
that is death. A legitimate sensation comes from 
the truth pressed closely home to the hearts of men, 
in a fair, clear, pointed, well-illustrated presentation. 
This is something that men will carry away, and 
think over because they must : the sensation deep- 
ening, the more they think. 

Not so when a ripple of excitement is created 



6o 



Mistakes. 



by an astounding attitude, or piece of uncertain in- 
telligence, or by the putting of truth in startling 
ways, which if soberly heeded — if not treated as 
extravagances — would belie the truth. 

The more these things* are thought over, the 
more certain the reaction, and the worse for the 
next attempt to interest men in that which is vital 
to their welfare. Extravagant statements of fact, 
or interpretations of Holy Writ may make a mo- 
mentary impression, but they will bring little fruit 
unto perfection. 

Worse yet is it " where extravagant religious 
emotion becomes a hackneyed, fashionable thing, 
imitated half unconsciously by weak men and 
women." Thus " a great and serious damage is 
done to the cause of Christ." 

2. Alongside this I would put the story-telling sort 
of address, wherein it is too evident that the stories 
are first laid out, and the effort 4s to link them to- 
gether in connected discourse. This may be very 
entertaining, if the stories are well told and they 
wear an air of probability. But this is making a 
staple of what, at best, should be sparingly intro- 
duced. This is not to wield the sword of the 
Spirit. 



Mistakes. 



61 



3. Again, it is often forgotten that an illustration 
that may be effective in one place, with one set of 
people, may be quite out of place in a different 
community. Discourse may be dignified and yet 
adapted to occasions and peoples, so that our 
fishing for men shall have, at least, as much 
skill in it as fishing for trout. 

4. Exaggeration and romance in religious work 
are serious mistakes. I once worked side by side 
with a brother, in a time of religious interest. So 
often as we met, he had wonderful accounts to tell 
of meetings just held, reporting in round numbers 
the attendance, inquirers, conversions, and so on. I 
got in the way of bringing him down to details, 
with surprising result. A walk of a few rods served 
to show how grievously exaggerated were his re- 
ports. 

I know another man in whose hand an incident 
will be dexterously handled and as dexterously em- 
bellished, so that it never appears twice as exactly 
the same story, even when it happens to be a mat- 
ter of fact or personal experience. 

It is nothing to the purpose to say that such per- 
sons mean all right. They ought to be right. Both 
of them seriously embarrassed their usefulness by 



62 



Mistakes. 



their — shall I say, unconscious lying? I do not say 
they meant to lie, but they had fallen into an un- 
justifiable habit of exaggerating and romancing 
about their Christian work till it wore a very un- 
christian air. 

Concerning all such reports of religious meetings, 
inquirers, conversions, it might be well to ask at the 
outset, — Was the audience actually counted? If 
not, everybody ought to know how easy it is to be 
mistaken ; and instead of saying just how many 
hundreds or thousands were present, it is better to 
put in qualifying words — to understate rather than 
overstate. 

Experience also teaches us that men are not con- 
verted just because they expre s some interest, or 
promise some amendment. Wait and see. Let 
the fruits testify the result. We should be very 
careful in stating the results of Christian effort. 
" We went forth to do honest work, and did it. The 
people were interested, the attendance large, or very 
large. Many asked the prayers of Christians. Some, 
or many, seemed fully determined to follow Christ, 
and we were greatly blessed and helped in witness- 
ing for the Master." Actual cases of special inter- 
est may be very helpful to others, if reported cor- 



Mistakes. 



63 



rectly and soberly. I must think for truth's sake, 
and out of regard to one's usefulness and the credu- 
lity of sober, thoughtful people, in the church or 
out of it, this is better than saying, " There were five 
thousand people present ; three hundred rose for 
prayers and two hundred were converted." To know 
all this is quite impossible ; and hence the need of 
caution in reporting such intelligence. 

In the same vein, men sometimes speak of things 
as accomplished which are only in process of in- 
cubation ; of promises which are only concessions 
of interest ; and presently matters have dropped out 
of mention which were said to have hardened into 
final shape ! 

Let it be understood we are not impugning the 
motives of good men, even in their mendacity, of 
such sort, but it is a serious blemish on Christian 
service, which should be kept free from needless 
prejudice, and be always transparent as the day. 

5. Religious controversy is for most persons a 
mistaken way of endeavoring to advance the king- 
dom. You will often be beset to enter into it, and 
if the temptation be yielded to, it will quite likely 
be to your hurt. This is not because of the weakness 
of the Christian defences, but because of the 



6 4 



Mistakes. 



sophistry or the skill of your antagonist who is 
better versed than you in a certain, it may be very 
narrow, line of argumentation. So that unless 
certain of a victory, stick to your line of thing, which 
is to be witnesses to an experience, and heralds of 
a Gospel whose worth you have proven. One need 
never hesitate to say, " I leave controversy to others, 
as also scientific objections. I have nothing to say 
pro or con. I am certain they have been answered 
and can be again. Listen to another class of facts 
about which I do know/' 

When these mistakes are spoken of as incidental, 
it certainly is not meant that they are trivial. I in- 
sist that they are serious, but they lie rather in the 
domain of unconscious habit, or grow out of a san- 
guine temperament, and are more or less due to 
inexperience. 

Vital Mistakes. — I speak of these as vital because 
they go to the heart of instruction, and motive, and 
so-called religious life. 

A man may build on the foundation hay, wood, 
stubble, and be saved so as by fire, because on the 
foundation, while all his work is burned. But what 
if we mislead as to the foundation itself? 

Mistaken Theology. — In all appeals to men, we 



Mistakes. 



65 



need care — (1) rightly to represent the character of 
God and His government over men — (2) rightly to 
represent the character of man — (3) rightly to rep- 
resent the way of reconciliation. 

On these vital points we need Scriptural views, 
not opinions and conjectures of men. 

We need to know, not guess, what the Scriptures 
teach about God, and man, and reconciliation, and 
to hold this knowledge clearly and put it forth with 
confidence. To do this we must have compared 
Scripture with Scripture. We shall not then be 
tempted to decry doctrine, for that is just what we 
go forth to teach ; nor theology, for if we have any- 
thing to tell men, if our Gospel is of any account 
to them, it is because of what it reveals of God. 
The one need of men is to let God into their hearts 
and to allow Him to rule in the affections and the 
will. It is amazing what views of God are current 
among men*; what prejudices bar His approach to 
them ; what feelings are attributed to" Him. A 
man without a Scriptural theology has missed the 
first qualification for effective service among men. 
Yet nothing is more common than to hear indiscrim- 
inate flings at theology, and in the next breath the 
most astounding theology finds utterance. It were 



66 



Mistakes. 



well that it were understood that almost every ad- 
dress to the people on religious themes is likely to 
have some theology in it, even when laymen are 
the speakers, and the one concern of every man 
is to have it Scriptural as far as it goes. Theology 
is, first of all, a question of fact concerning the 
grandest of beings, the Infinite God. Take care 
about the facts lest God be misrepresented. The 
philosophy of these facts may well be left to the 
philosophers, whether lay or clerical. 

We see the importance, then, of not hanging our 
doctrine on the uncertain hook of a verse of Scrip- 
ture which is not pertinent. Proof-texts ought to 
be very carefully chosen, and not forced out of their 
just bearings, as men are always tempted to do 
when they adopt fanciful methods of interpretation, 
or the catch-word method of some Bible-readers 
and teachers. 

Take the doctrine of God. He is revealed as a 
Father, and quite as truly as a moral governor. He 
is love, and He is holy and righteous. He address- 
es the heart of man and no less his conscience. 

It is a serious mistake to fasten on either repre- 
sentation of God to the exclusion of the other. 
You may press the love and benevolence of God so 



Mistakes. 



6 7 



far, and in such a way, as to weaken moral obliga- 
tion and sear the conscience; to lower the claims 
of righteousness and make sin appear a trivial thing. 
If God cares little for it, why should we ? God, as 
often misrepresented, is a goodish, kind-hearted, 
would-be-benevolent sort of being, making shift 
with sin as a great misfortune, and pitying men as 
a race of unfortunate beings, whom it were certainly 
out of place to blame. This is unspeakably mis- 
chievous. God is a Father, but a " Father-King." 
He is love, but love in God is no weak sentimen- 
tality making void moral obligation and amount- 
ing to indifference to character. It is holy, right- 
eous, burning against sin and wrong, jealous of His 
law of right, and so transcendent in glory that it 
not only pities, but at infinite cost lays hold of sin- 
ners to set them right, and then unfold to them the 
glories of His fatherhood and the splendors of His 
righteous administration over accountable beings. 
On the other hand, men err by pressing the govern- 
mental idea so far as to land men in a fatality which 
is paralyzing, so far as they are concerned ; and we 
have a dry, severe, cold theology which detracts 
from the glory and loveliness of the Divine charac- 
ter. It misrepresents God. It is the king without 



68 Mistakes. 

the father — that is, a despot. Present God as He 
is revealed i'i the Scriptures, and you touch both 
the heart and the conscience. Then mercy and 
truth kiss each other ; righteousness anp! peace go 
hand in hand. God ordains and man is free. It is 
not out of character for Him to chastise and to 
punish. Pain and suffering are not the worst things 
— they may lead to the best. It is not out of place 
for man to repent of his. sin and return to such a 
God. Nay, he must do it or be forever at war with 
Him. 

And so it is a mistake for a man to say, " I 
preach a gospel of love," meaning by it that he 
does not preach a gospel of law. Who tells us to 
preach such a gospel ? Where, in the Bible, is the 
law of God ever spoken of as a thing made void, or 
obsolete, or as if in dishonor? Who has a commis- 
sion to put grace and the moral law in antagonism ? 
Certainly this is not learned at the feet of Him who 
was careful to say, that He came not to destroy the 
law, but to fulfill it ; also to add, " Till heaven and 
earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass 
from the law till all be fulfilled. " And Paul ex- 
pressly teaches that the grace of God was revealed 
in Christ, " that the righteousness of the law might 



Mistakes. 



6 9 



be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but 
after the Spirit. " Obviously, we need carefully to 
discriminate between the ceremonial and the moral 
law ; between obedience to the law as a rule of life, 
and as a ground of justification. 

Take the doctrine of man — take it just as it is put 
in the Scriptures. On this high authority we say 
he is dead in sins, guilty before God, exposed to 
His righteous displeasure because of sin, but 
capable of being reasoned with, admonished, 
warned, invited, entreated, redeemed, restored — ■ 
a child of God, but a prodigal, a transgressor of 
law, and already under condemnation. Such is man 
before God, judged by the perfect law of righteous- 
ness. 

Now, I should say it were better to leave un- 
used the theological phraseology. Take the truth 
just as it stands in the Scripture. Use the words 
of Scripture. God saith so and so of man. Do 
not blunt the edge of it, or lead men to think this 
is true of some great sinners, but not of them. On 
the other hand, do not represent the Bible as say- 
ing men are just as bad as they can be. It does 
not say so. The doctrine of total depravity never 
meant that in theology. They are wholly gone 



70 



Mistakes. 



astray, but they can go further, and they will if 
they do not repent. 

Do not represent men as wholly impotent to do 
anything under a gracious system, nor as all-suf- 
ficient without the grace of God. To do this is to 
mislead. This is not Scriptural teaching. They 
can do many things ; Paul says all things, through 
Christ. They are bidden to awake, repent, believe, 
and they ought. The very coming of Christ to 
them, His call, His " rise and walk," carries with it 
the pledge of grace to do just what is bidden. 

Take the doctrine of reconciliation. You have it 
in the best possible shape in the Scriptures, — " God 
was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, 
not imputing their trespasses unto them." On this 
ground comes the " Now then, we are ambassadors 
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, 
we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to 
God." 

Ordinarily, I think it is a mistake to philosophize 
about the work of Christ — especially the atonement 
— without thorough preparation for it. Even then, 
it ought to be remembered that no theory of the 
atonement can possibly be of so much account as 
the atonement itself. The true theory of light is im- 



V 



Mistakes. 71 

portant ; but whichever of many is true, or if none 
of them thus far propounded be true, light we must 
have. And fortunately, they who never thought so 
far as to have any theory about it, may enjoy the 
light, bask in its rays, and avail themselves of its 
practical benefits. And it is so of the atonement. 
Theories of the atonement are not indifferent mat- 
ters. They may be very serious and misleading. 
They may be very helpful and stimulating. But 
a man who never had a theory, or heard a phi- 
losophical discussion, may avail himself of Christ 
and His atoning work just as truly as if he knew 
by heart the score of theories about it. I venture 
the opinion that these theories often obstruct the 
way to Christ — often they are misleading. 

This much is certain, God is satisfied with the 
work of Christ, both as related to love and to 
righteousness. On account of it God can be just, 
and at the same time the justifier of him who be- 
lieveth, whoever he may be, however deeply guilty 
as a sinner. That is all that is absolutely needful 
to be known. Whatever hinderance there was in 
the way of pardon is taken away in Christ. What- 
ever was needful to maintain the majesty of the 
law and exhibit the righteousness of its sanctions 



72 



Mistakes. 



— and that something was needful conscience af- 
firms — was done by Him. Whatever is necessary to 
our complete redemption and fitness for His king- 
dom is found in Him ; only believe and obey — trust 
and follow Him. He bore our sorrows and carried 
our griefs. On Him our iniquities were laid. He 
laid down His life for the sheep. " God so loved 
the world that He gave His only begotten Son 
that whosoever believeth on Him might not perish, 
but have everlasting life." 

This shows clearly enough — What ? That Christ 
suffered as much as would all the race if condemned 
to all eternity ? Is there anything said in the Bible 
about the quantity of suffering endured by our 
Lord? When men go on to tell us just how much 
Christ suffered ; that He actually " suffered the pain 
which would have been endured by the eternal 
punishment of every sinner ;" we may well ask 
them for their Scripture texts, and how such 
sweeping statements are to be harmonized with 
the concurrent voice of Holy Writ ? There is no 
arithmetic for suffering. Such computations, if 
they did not misrepresent or belittle the work of 
Christ, could convey no adequate sense of its Di- 
vine majesty and its unapproachable grandeur. 



Mistakes. 



73 



It were certainly far better that our lay-workers, 
possibly the ministry also, simply hold up the liv- 
ing Christ, once crucified for us that He might 
bring us to God ; the Way, the Truth, the Life ; 
to believe on whom is eternal life ; and voice the 
invitation, " Whosoever will, let him come." Let us 
philosophize about the atonement in our studies, 
in the lecture-room, in the next world if we feel 
like it, before the people now if we are certain we 
can do it well and helpfully. Very few gifted men, 
.even, succeed in doing it very helpfully. Many 
sadly blunder and falsify the truth, who can yet 
preach Christ crucified, risen, ascended, glorified, 
the Saviour to the uttermost of them who believe 
in Him, if they were content to do this only. 

But what shall be said of a recent announcement 
from a prominent pulpit, that blood is an anti- 
quated symbol, possibly needed by some, but out- 
grown by many ; " once magnificently useful," but 
that now what is needed is, " That every man and 
every woman shall feel that they have a living Friend 
in Heaven." This is a need, boundless and insa- 
tiable — the living Christ ! but it is the once cruci- 
fied Christ, without the shedding of whose blood 
was no remission. He laid down His life the just 
4 



74 



Mistakes. 



for the unjust, and " The life was in the blood." 
We must come to the living Christ, but it must 
be by the Cross of Calvary — it must be by and 
through the atonement. The last articulate words 
of Professor Tholuck were : " I am not afraid to 
die ; Christ died for me." So has it been with 
saints of God without number. And that death, 
consequently that blood-shedding, is kept in eter- 
nal remembrance in the Song of Moses and the 
Lamb. It is no antiquated symbol. It is still, 
and will ever be, " magnificently useful." Because 
abused and materialized, do not let us go to a 
worse extreme — the extreme of ignoring the Cross 
and Passion of our Lord. In our joy that He has 
risen, let us not forget that He died for us, and 
that through His blood we have forgiveness of 
sins. 

There are two extremes, very often met in lay- 
work, especially in times of revival, when the work 
of Christ is in hand. The one is to hold up a free 
salvation so as to ignore the law. " Christ paid it 
all, all the debt I owe." " Only believe." " All 
things are yours, only believe." Rightly taken, 
these are true sayings ; but they have been so 
taken as to sweep away the very foundations of 



Mistakes. 75 

morality. " Grace abounds, I need not concern 
myself further." " Grace abounds, all things are 
ours." Well, yes, only in righteousness — " that 
the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in 
us who walk not after the flesh, but after the 
spirit." Grace abounds, but as the death of sin. 
(What becomes of a recent, thoughtless assertion, 
" I can't keep the law. I don't care anything about 
the law!") "Jesus paid it all;" yes, go and sin 
no more. " Believe ; " yes, but let it never slip out 
of thought, that in the New Testament, faith 
always implies a genuine repentance and a true 
obedience. The doctrine of free grace must never 
be severed from the obvious truths that move right 
along with it. It is a mischievous mistake to 
ignore them. 

The other extreme fosters a legal spirit and does 
not make enough of grace. It belittles it as though 
the work of Christ needed a great deal of supple- 
menting. We must make ourselves better before 
coming, and better after coming; and it is doing, 
doing, " deadly doing," not done, finished, dead to 
sin, alive to holiness in Christ, and now ; henceforth, 
fruits of righteousness, lives of obedience and 
Christian virtue, just because salvation is complete 



76 



Mistakes. 



in Christ and we are saved. " Now are we the 
sons of God." Teaching that man's doings must 
supplement Christ's work is a mistaken guidance. 
Our doings are but good fruits from a tree made 
good. 

2. Mistaken Appeals to Men. 
Some appeals to men foster only selfishness. 
They do not exalt God, and the right and wrong 
of conduct and motive. To refer to expressions 
which it has been my misfortune to hear; "It's 
Heaven if you will." "You'll be damned if you 
don't." I do not so much question the truth of 
these blunt admonitions as the wisdom of making 
them the staple of appeal, or giving them very 
much prominence. Doubtless the fears of men are 
sometimes to be awakened ; but it should not be 
forgotten that fear can only arrest, so that, per- 
chance, the love of God in Christ — His goodness — 
may lead them to repentance. Even so, it is 
better to use the Scriptural language tenderly, 
feelingly, never fiercely and with declamatory em- 
bellishment. Neither the selfish fear of Hell nor 
desire of some sort of Heaven which is simply not 
Hell, will convert men. They may be set thinking; 



Mistakes. 



77 



but if ever men are saved, they will say, " We love 
Him because He first loved us." Hence it is clear, 
that no selfish consideration should be lifted so high 
or be so magnified as to hide the essential wrong and 
enormity of sin against God ; or the essential 
beauty and Tightness of love to God and obedience 
to His will ; to bring men back to which, the love 
of God in Christ was lavished upon the world. 

Of much the same sort is the " You'll be happy 
if you do." That is not a Biblical reason for 
repentance. It certainly has no place in the fore- 
ground. And yet it is the staple of many ap- 
peals — " You'll be happy if you do." If it were 
true, it is not the grand reason why men should 
obey the voice of the Lord. Happiness, light, 
rest, assurance, may not come at once, but as fruits 
of growth and products of experience in the king- 
dom. What then, when converts, so-called, find 
their expectations unrealized at once ? The result 
is often very serious. No such expectations ought 
to have been awakened. Men ought to come to 
the Lord as worthy of boundless confidence, and 
be willing He should manifest Himself as seems 
good to Him, assured that He who loved them 
unto death will withhold no good thing from them 



78 Mistakes, 

who believe and are obedient. He will call them 
by name and give them an experience of their 
own. The eternal rightness of the Divine claims 
ought to be enough to stir any soul ; and the Di- 
vine love, enough to break any heart and lead to 
submission. 

It is worse yet to say to men, " You'll find it easy 
to be a Christian if you'll only come." Indeed, this 
— I am sorry to say — very common argument in 
some quarters, is sometimes supplemented by the 
astounding statement that " It is just as easy to be 
a Christian as to turn your hand over." The Lord 
never puts it so. The apostles never seem to have 
found it so. They never deceive men to win them. 
Our Lord often thinned out His nominal followers 
by the most searching of tests and the most abso- 
lute of requirements ; the apostles never represent 
the Christian life as a holiday affair. Who has any 
commission to say, it is an easy thing to be a Chris- 
tian ? Call up the Master's " He that forsaketh not 
all that he hath, verily I say unto you, he can not 
be my disciple ! " That is not an easy thing to do, 
though a blessed one. Call up the New Testament 
figures of race, warfare, pilgrimage, overcoming, 
and so on. They do not look easy to be done. It 



Mistakes. 79 

is a great thing to be a disciple indeed, and glorious 
as great. It so lies in the mind of the average 
worldly man. And it is well it is so. Leave it 
there. 

Do not, then, try to accommodate the claims of 
Christ to the easy-going notions of men. This is 
to belittle them and deceive men. What will they 
do when really assailed by their spiritual foes if 
they have not had them in mind from the begin- 
ning? 

3. Mistaken Counsels. 

There are likewise mistaken counsels to inquire rs t 
Men are really awakened and the inquiry comes, 
"What shall I do to be saved?" In the New 
Testament, the answer is, " Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ " — " Repent and be converted " — " Be- 
lieve and be baptized." These directions are so put 
as to lay stress upon faith and repentance as an ex- 
perience of the heart, baptism not being absolutely, 
though ordinarily essential. 

It is hardly worth while to discuss which is prior 
in order of time, repentance or faith. The one im- 
plies the other, and in experience they are insep- 
arable. " God now commandeth all men every- 
where to repent." "Believe on the Lord Jesus 



8o 



Mistakes. 



Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house." 
" Now is the accepted time, and now is the day of 
salvation." 

These are apostolic directions given to men in 
just such spiritual crises of their lives. 

It is a mistake to interpose any preliminary work 
whatsoever between the soul and instantaneous sub- 
mission to the will of God. 

It is a mistake to parry the thrusts of the Spirit 
and truth of God which urge that duty is imme- 
diate. 

It is a mistake, in any way, to imply that all 
things are not ready for the sinner just as he is, 
when in fact the only barrier to his immediate sal- 
vation is found in his own unyielding will. 

To tell an awakened, inquiring soul to read the 
Bible, to reform his life, to go to meetings, to read 
some book or tract, to hear some preacher, are none 
of them Scriptural directions. It is your duty to 
give him a Scriptural reason for instant repentance 
and return to God, and faith in our Lord Jesus 
Christ. But remember, the Bible does not tell in- 
quiring men to go on inquiring, seeking, sorrowing. 
Why should we ? This is just what a man who sees 
himself a sinner and Christ a Saviour should stop 



Mistakes. 



81 



doing, and begin believing, obeying, following, at 
once, this very moment. We may endeavor to 
arouse an indifferent person by any legitimate 
means — a book, a meeting, a sermon may do it. 
But upon an awakened soul, the need of going at 
once to Christ, to commit himself to Him as a 
Saviour and obey Him as Lord and Master, without 
qualification or reserve, should come with nothing 
to relieve the pressure, nor any intimation of any- 
thing to be done at some future time. This is the 
issue of the hour, clear, simple, and supreme. There 
let it remain and be settled, that guilt may no longer 
rest upon the soul. If it be not thus met, let the 
person be left with the conviction of duty unper- 
formed, rather than comforted with such sayings as 
these : " Well, you will come out all right if you keep 
on." Nothing could be more untrue. Keeping on, 
though accompanied with the utmost agony of 
spirit, but refusing to believe on Christ and yield 
Him a hearty obedience, is not to come out " all 
right," but to continue wholly wrong. Nothing 
hinders acceptance and peace but an unyielding 
will. 

It is a mistake to make salvation a thing of the 
future, or to so represent it. The future is with 

4* 



82 



Mistakes. 



God. 'There may be other " nows " with Him, but 
we have to do only with the * now " that is passing, 
and the possibilities and duties lodged in it. The 
soul unsaved must not presume that to-morrow will 
be as this day. Behold, I stand — now — at the door 
and knock. The time to open is when the King 
stands and knocks. One secret of Mr. Finney's 
great success, as of Mr. Moody's, is found in this, 
that he offers a present good and urges men to 
close with it at once. It is the Scriptural way. 
The precedent is Apostolic. 

It is of course a mistake, at such a time, to take 
up and discuss questions of casuistry. Sometimes 
inquiring souls seem stirred up to endless question- 
ing, often quite irrelevant. They may concern 
hinderances which a word will remove, or doubts 
upon which light should be shed. Of course such 
a word should be" spoken. But to men asking, 
" Can I be a Christian and do this and that ? " " Do 
you think it is wrong to play cards, to go to the 
theater, to dance?" These are not questions to be 
answered, much Jess discussed at such a time. They 
are matters to be considered afterward. These 
things are now to be forsaken, and all things else. 
Afterward, in the light of the truth and Spirit of 



Mistakes. 83 

God, by the aid of the wisest Christian counsel to 
be got at, these matters, if they again present 
themselves, are to be prayerfully settled. The one 
thing now in hand is to be saved, at any cost. Such 
questions at such a moment are an impertinent in- 
trusion of the devil. A man can have no just ap- 
preciation of the situation who does not see that 
all things are to be laid down at the feet of Christ, 
and then all things adjusted with his new Master. 
And if he has not confidence enough in the Lord 
Jesus to do the things that He bids, to leave or 
take, as pleaseth Him, he is not prepared to com- 
mit the greater thing, the keeping of his soul, to 
Him. 

When a man is drowning is no time to discuss 
the propriety of going to a dance that night. He 
wants to be saved from death — then he may not 
feel like dancing. When it comes home to a man, 
" I'm a lost sinner," the business in hand is too 
serious to allow of conditions and parleying. It is, 
" Christ only " — Christ at any cost to selfish pleasure 
or inclination. 

A man taking up a hope in Christ with some 
such compromise is likely to be crippled for life. 
Misleading direction is a snare. Nobody has any 



84 Mistakes. 

business to say to another, you can be a Christian 
and do this and that. Who has given to one man 
the prerogative of being conscience to another? 
Yet this hazardous thing is often done — perhaps 
since they have to do with the young, more fre- 
quently by Sunday-school teachers than others ; 
and it is mischievous beyond telling. 

Such questions generally reveal some darling sin, 
about which a contest rages. It is the strategic 
point. If that is yielded, the way is clear for all 
time to come. But let some spiritual quackery 
come in and fix it up so that the inquirer may keep 
his darling self-indulgence and have Christ too, and 
the harm of such mischievous advice will color a 
life-time, unless by and by a genuine conversion 
takes place. 

It is well to say to persons beginning a Christian 
life, " Little by little your questionings will be an- 
swered — your doubts will clear up." Many of them 
will probably never more arise, when once Christ is 
taken as the life and light of the soul. 

It is a mistake, usually, to take up a hope for 
another, and say : " You are all right now ; there 
is no doubt of it." How do you know that? Who 
can read the secret of another's heart, so as to safely 



Mistakes. 85 

say so much as this? Leave this with the Lord. 
A man will soon find out whether the Lord of glory 
is making His abode with him. This is a matter for 
self-revelation, to come to the consciousness as one 
waits on the Lord and filially does his duty. The 
Spirit witnesseth with our spirit — revealeth the 
fact — that we are the sons of God. So do not 
yield to the temptation to go before the Spirit of the 
Lord or to try and do His work. If a man does 
not find out that he loves the Lord and means to 
follow Him, most likely he does not. It is some- 
times well to open to a timid, shrinking soul the evi- 
dences of discipleship, thus to help an honest per- 
son to a judgment of himself, but let the judgment 
be his own. Let us be careful not to encourage a 
delusion. 

Such are some of the mistakes which other than 
laymen have made. But if we have rightly judged 
in the premises, they are blemishes which ought 
not to be suffered longer to mar our Christian work, 
whether lay or clerical. Our work culminates at 
the point where, face to face with the supreme duty 
of life, we try to lead men to Him who was lifted 
up that He might draw the world to His feet. At 
this point, imperatively, Scriptural clearness is a ne- 
cessity to the Christian worker, whoever he may be. 



VII. 



THE LAY-WORKER'S SELF-CULTURE. 

I PROCEED to indicate briefly some of the means 
of self-culture to be studiously seized as a part of 
the layman's equipment for Christian work. 

Purposely our suggestions lie within the plane 
which is open to all. Other things being equal, the 
best-cultured man will be the most useful. The 
reason why culture often appears at disadvantage 
by the side of its opposite is, that other things are 
not equal. The man who does so well with no aid 
from the schools might do better if he were furnished 
with what the schools could do for him. It were 
well if every man who aspires to any of the more 
public forms of lay-work could avail himself of a 
brief course of study in Biblical theology and Bib- 
lical interpretation. This the lay-college aims to 
furnish among other things ; this our Theological 
seminaries could more readily supply than any other 

agency, and do it on existing foundations. Few, 
(86) 



The Lay-Workers Self-Culture, 



37 



however, can avail themselves of such facilities, and 
the culture the larger number get must be acquired 
at odd moments and in leisure hours of which they 
have few. 

Speaking to the many, let me presume that you 
use your native tongue correctly. For while bad 
grammar and mispronounced words do not abso- 
lutely disqualify for your work, they are spots on 
your armor that ought to be removed. They do 
not commend the Christian workman, much less are 
they to be gloried in or treated as matters of in- 
difference. This is to be said, all the same, how- 
ever illustrious the names, eminent in usefulness in 
spite of bad grammar. The wise will see that it is 
not their faults which give them their power. 

It is also assumed that you feel the need of keep- 
ing your own heart warm and engaged in the Lord's 
work, and have learned how essential it is to culti- 
vate a prayerful spirit, and to have your thoughts 
running much on sacred themes. To be deeply 
conscious of this is to have taken a long step to- 
ward securing it. It is easy to get out of practice 
in doing the Lord's work ; and, hence, the need of 
having your thoughts charged and your heart 
aflame with it. But beyond all this — a foremost 



88 The Lay-Worker s Self -Culture. 

means of culture for such a work is intelligent study 
of the Scriptures. Let emphasis fall on that word 
study, and that other word intelligent. For such 
study some adequate equipment is necessary be- 
yond the use of one's faculties and the aid of the 
Spirit of God. I by no means think any man will 
find the Scriptures open to his understanding with- 
out the aid of the enlightening Spirit. But it is no 
less true that the Spirit will not teach Scripture 
geography and flood allusions to manners and cus- 
toms with any radiance from heaven, unless it be 
through a Bible Dictionary or some wise commen- 
tary or book of travel in the lands made sacred by 
the wonders wrought by the power of God. A 
Concordance, a Bible Dictionary, a good text-book 
with maps, an Introduction to the books of the 
Bible, two or three well-chosen Commentaries, an 
Englishman's Greek Concordance, and such a 
thesaurus of sacred knowledge as Angus' Bible 
Hand-book, Barrows' Companion to the Bible, and 
Bissell's " Historic Origin of the English Bible," 
will not stand in the way of heavenly illumination, 
as many seem to think. 

As a case in point, consider what a flood of light 
Conybeare and Howson and Mr. Lewin shed upon 



The Lay- Worker s Self- Culture. . 89 

the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of 
St. Paul. There crops out now and then a dis- 
dainful remark about commentaries and such 
helps as I have named, encouraged by the foolish 
speeches of some fervid, but ignorant, evan- 
gelist, who is always telling how he and the Spirit 
of God get at the truth of the Bible ; and whose 
interpretations suggest that it is much that ke f and 
but little that the Spirit has had to do with them ! 
How absurd it is for a man to declaim against a 
commentary, and then himself go on to make one 
on a passage of Scripture, and urge its acceptance 
by a waiting audience. The conceit of the thing is 
amazing ! We need to learn the difference between 
the discreet use of what wiser men than we have 
seen, or thought they saw, by the aid of the same 
Holy Spirit, and a servile acceptance of anybody's 
views of Holy Scripture. Obviously enough, the 
Holy Spirit is not more likely to work with igno- 
rance than with learning — with undisciplined than 
with disciplined mind ! The child-like Spirit is the 
essential thing in either, and experience proves 
that this is more likely to be found with great 
learning than with little. Conceit generally dwells 
with ignorance. We may honor the Holy Ghost 



go The Lay-Worker s Self-Culture. 

quite as much by giving heed to His suggestions 
through saintly and gifted souls as when filtered 
through our own willing minds. This much is said 
in rebuke of a foolish prejudice against the use of 
" helps " in the study of the Scriptures. We should 
have had a good deal less nonsense in the shape of 
interpretation if some of our " Bible-readers " had 
been more free in the use of them. 

We need intelligent study of the Scriptures, that 
we may use them just as they were meant to be 
used — that the word may mean to us just what it 
did in the mind of the Lord, or of David, Isaiah, and 
Paul. How is it better for orthodox than for un- 
orthodox people to use the Scriptures in accommo- 
dation to the matter they happen to have in hand ? 
The obvious sense they yield as the words lie in the 
record, is worth all diligent search ; and when found, 
that sense, and that only, is given us to take to our 
own heart and teach to others. 

It may be desirable to know how many books 
there are in the Bible, and to be able to recite 
their names in order, but I must think the value of 
such knowledge a little exaggerated in these times. 
Doubtless the more one knows about the Bible the 
better, but do not let us linger too long at the 



The Lay-Worker's Self-Culture, 91 

vestibule of the temple, lest we have no time for 
the temple itself. 

Upon the evidences of its inspiration, answering 
the question, How do you know the Bible is from 
God? we may well spend time enough to give 
an intelligent answer, since it will often be thrust 
upon us. But for a life-time the Book itself will 
open its wonderful stores and invite our most care- 
ful and prayerful research. Upon methods of 
Biblical study I do not enter; but the importance 
of the study as a qualification for lay-work may be 
enforced, as lying within the scope of this treatise. 

(a). The Bible-truth is the sword of the Spirit, 
and our work is nothing without the Spirit. We 
must needs be in agreement with Him in the 
weapon we are to use. 

(&). The Bible contains the message we are to 
take to men — the invitations, warnings, promises, 
hopes. We need our quiver full of these truths. 
The hammer of God's Word is to break in pieces 
the flinty heart. God's truth is to be set over 
against the speculations of men — its certainty over 
against the human guess — its high and safe tower 
over against the refuges of lies. " God saith," is a 
tremendous word to put before a sentence, and let 



92 The Lay-Worker 's Self -Culture. 

fly at the castle of the human soul. " God saith." 
And just because you want to be able to say that, 
and say it often, you solemnly need to beware of 
fanciful interpretations and hastily formed opinions 
of the Word of God. No man can afford to ignore 
all the commentaries and scholarship of men famil- 
iar with the original tongues of Scripture. Do not 
put " God saith " before what He never said. 

(c). The Bible contains the inexhaustible mate- 
rial for discourses, addresses, and conversations 
with men in regard to their souls. Not only so, 
there is an eternal freshness about it. Hence the 
difference between men who are always full of 
Scripture and in consequence always fresh ; and 
others who are empty and forever telling the story 
of their conversion, what sort of people they were 
before that time, and what they have been about 
since, and in consequence always dull, or stagey, 
or suspiciously exaggerated in statement. 

I by no means wish to be understood as dispar- 
aging all allusions to experience ; but this should 
not be the staple of our talk or discourse. One 
vwould suppose it tiresome to say over the same 
thing forty or fifty times, as beyond a doubt it is 
tedious to hear. And if the story of a matter of 



The Lay-Worker s Self-Culture. 93 

fact be not the same thing over and over, it is 
lying, to which there is a dangerous temptation in 
the case of a man with whom this is his stock in 
trade. Our speech needs to be saturated with 
God's Word. Then it will be mighty. Then we 
have resource. Then there is good reason why 
we should stand up and speak out of the abun- 
dance of our heart. Unless a man is willing to 
take pains to so qualify himself, it is questionable 
whether he has any very urgent call to lift up his 
voice in the name of the Lord. 

{d). Still further, there is no such stock of apt 
illustration anywhere to be found as in the Bible. 
Its characters, its history, its parables, its wise say- 
ings, what a relief from the story-telling, thin, 
gossipy talk of some men who use up so much 
precious time and leave us so empty, and often so 
unsatisfied, suspiciously questioning how much 
truth there was in those " tales from real life." 
There is stimulus in Biblical illustrations. They 
really illuminate something. They have perspect- 
ive and color. They were winnowed out of cen- 
turies of life, under Divine guidance, as worth 
handing down to the end of time in the One Book 
upon which God puts His imprint. They live, 



94 The Lay-Worker s Self-Culture. 

they speak, they instruct, they barb the arrow we 
let fly, and they stick ! Perhaps it is natural for a 
man who is not a story-teller and can not be one, ~ 
to undervalue this species of illustration ; yet for 
such a- man, a pertinent illustration, drawn from 
the Bible and fitly used, will have a charm of 
which he never tires. 

(e). Then, again, what is the world really hungry 
for? What does it need? Possibly it does not 
know. But we know. Not the wisdom of men, 
but the wisdom of God. Something for heart- 
aches and guilty consciences, and doubts and fears, 
the bread of God, the water of life, a promise 
sure as the eternal throne, a hope springing from 
the living rock and cleaving the skies, an anchor 
of the soul. Nothing of all this is met by pump- 
ing at our shallow cisterns. We must draw from 
the wells of salvation, which are deep and unfail- 
ing as God. Do not offer men the stone of human 
conceit or the froth of vanity. Give them bread. 
Give them a staff of promise. Make a pillow for 
them of the truth. Give them wings of hope. 
Be a Samaritan indeed. 

Hence I say, study the Bible intelligently. Make 
it your resource. Good " Bible-reading " is about 



The Lay-Worker s Self-Culture. 95 

the most sensible way for a layman to do wise, 
sound, effective work. But then, it needs to be 
good, simple, natural, logical ; not strained, forced, 
exaggerated — about nineteen per cent, of Bible to 
one of the man. Is that an easy thing to do ? 
Let him be a torch-bearer, God's word the torch 
throwing him into shadow. The mariner in a 
storm makes little account of the wonderful ma- 
sonry of the light-house, but the blazing reflection 
of light is his salvation. 

2. Next to the Bible, study men. Books will not 
help you much here. The best methods are not 
mapped out. The man that has done it will find 
it difficult to tell another how. But study men for 
yourselves. Your subjects are all about you. 
Learn to read them, that you may know how to 
approach them — how not to " rub the wrong 
way" — how not to be captious with men — how to 
give them the line and let them have their own 
way within certain reasonable limits — how to let 
them think their opinions, on many things, all they 
fancy them, when no harm can come of them — 
how to silence an opposer without controversy — 
how to tell when a man is talking for effect, to 
cover up a guilty conscience — how to respect 



g6 The Lay-Worker's Self-Culture. 

honest doubt and help it. This is a great matter. 
A little universe is man, and men are a study for a 
life-time. 

I know one man — a good, earnest minister of 
the Gospel — who is so foolish just here. If there is 
a sore spot about you he will hit it — if any hum- 
bling thing you will hear from it. He will differ in 
opinion to the ninety-nine-hundredth of an inch, 
when the matter in hand is so trivial that you do 
not care if he is all right and you are all wrong. 
Oh, such a faculty for making mountains of mole- 
hills, and seeing if you are out of perpendicular 
the one-eighth of an inch ! Such a faculty for 
" rubbing the wrong way." Study men. 

3. Try to be good feeders, learners, listeners, read- 
ers. Do not be always on the rampage. Go aside 
now and then, and rest awhile. Listen to others. 
Fill in. Why pump a dry well? Be jealous of your 
Sabbaths, and listen to preaching, if it is " not re- 
markable," and the calls from Macedonia be never 
so loud. I do not believe they are so loud that lay- 
men are called to habitually leave their church and 
their minister and hear only their own voice and its 
echo. No man can preach, no man can follow up 
public assemblies and speak well who does not 



The Lay-Worker s Self -Culture. 97 

take time to feed his own mind and augment his 
own resources. It is true of ministers as well as 
laymen — but the former are supposed to have 
that as a part of their calling, while the latter 
must seize it outside their ordinary callings, if at 
all. At this point an intelligent, spiritual ministry 
ought to be helpful to lay-workers. But besides 
this, if you can, go into the desert and read, and 
think, and pray. Sit down and hear other men for 
a little. In some way, your own way, be good 
feeders of your own souls if you would not starve 
others, or give them chaff for wheat. May they 
be few who go out to do the Lord's work having 
starved their own soul. A great fire will generate 
no steam if there be no water in the boiler. There 
must be water as well as fire. 

The need everywhere is men who are taught in 
the Scriptures and kindled by the Holy Ghost into 
a consuming zeal for the winning of souls to 
Christ. 



VIII. 



CONCLUSION. 

I HERE conclude these familiar remarks upon 
matters of great interest to the Church at large, 
but especially to earnest, but inexperienced, workers 
in the world's harvest-field. The Church of Christ 
must needs concern herself, not only with the sup- 
ply of laborers, but with the quality of their work 
no less. The harvest is always plenteous and the 
laborers always relatively few. The Master has 
bidden us, " Pray ye the Lord of the harvest to 
send forth laborers into his harvest." And every 
disciple, having ears to hear, may distinctly catch 
the words, " Go work to-day in my vineyard." 
Two very unequivocal duties are thus laid upon 
every disciple. 

Presumably the laborers are concerned to do 
their work well — to fill their place in the best pos- 
sible way ; especially since " He that goeth forth 
and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless 
. (98) 



Conclusion. 



99 



come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves 
with him." " And he that reapeth receiveth wages, 
and gathereth fruit unto life eternal : that both he 
that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice to- 
gether." 

There comes quickly after this assurance, the 
serious responsibility of being " A workman that 
needeth not to be ashamed ; " at the very least, 
of never lying open to the charge of being a blind 
leader of blind men into the ditch of doubt, or un- 
belief, or careless and ill-gounded hope ; or finding 
them there, then of not lying under the charge of 
being impotent to lead them out. 

If the work of laymen, as seems likely for some 
time to come, is to lie, in no small degree, in the 
promotion of revivals of religion, then it is of the 
utmost importance that they study to be Scriptural- 
ly prepared to guide men straight into the way of 
life, by the simplest road, and leave them with clear 
ideas of how they came there, and for what, and 
how to go on, and whereunto. And since no be- 
nevolent work has a right to be called Christian 
whose ultimate aim is not to present Christ as a 
Saviour of sinners and to exalt Him as Lord over 



IOO 



Conclusion. 



all, the necessity for such preparation would seem 
to be always imminent. 

It is earnestly hoped that nowhere in these pages 
.has the impression been left that what a Christian 
\does is of more account than what he is. Let it not 
be once thought that all we have to do is to be 
active. If we are to have an activity that will com- 
mand respect and be effective for good without 
great discount for needless blunders and crudeness, 
there must be intelligent piety and consistent 
Christian character behind it. The culture of such 
a piety, the building up of such a character, the 
living of a noble life, calls for something besides 
attention to the activities, so-called, of the local 
church or the Christian Association. It ought to 
be apparent that being eager to do good, we must 
give diligent heed to being good. And being act- 
ive is not the only culture needful to personal 
holiness and unselfish devotion to the glory of 
God. 

It is to be accounted a grand and blessed thing 
to live in this day when the battle thickens on 
every side and great issues are opening every hour; 
but it can never be such to a sluggish or indifferent 



Conclusion. 



101 



soul. If appreciated for what it is, we must needs 
bestir ourselves and arm for the conflict. This 
passes for an intelligent age. It is a reading age. 
And if somewhat superficial, it is yet quick to de- 
tect whether a man has anything to say, is in ear- 
nest, is posted on the themes he handles, has settled 
convictions for which he is ready to give a reason. 

So let no man presume to go unsent, to go un- 
armed, or refuse any service to which the Master 
really calls. Giving all diligence to be furnished 
for your work, with an answer ready for the hope 
that is in you, and an unwavering conviction that 
Christ is the world's need and the only Saviour, 
and with a deep and tender sympathy for men as 
men, go forth : to return at length bringing your 
sheaves with you, to lay them as trophies at the 
feet of our risen Lord and Redeemer. To Him be 
glory, and dominion, and power, forever and ever. 



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RECENT BOOKS 

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MODERN Scepticism. 
Lectures delivered in connection with the Christian 
Evidence Society, and designed to meet current 
forms of unbelief among the educated classes. By 
the Rev. George Rawlinson, the Lord Bishop of 
Carlisle, and others. i2mo, cloth. . . 2 50 

These Lectures are able and timely : they are popular in style ; stud 
yet thorough and scholarly. — Herald and Presbyter. 

PHILOSOPHY of Natural Theology (The). 
An Essay in confutation of the Scepticism of the 
present day, which obtained a prize at Oxford, 
November 26, 1872. By William Jackson, M.A., 
F.S.A. 8vo, cloth. . . . . 3 00 

Tnere is no reader, however learned, who will not find himself 
strengthened and informed by a study of this work, and he will be 
as much pleased with its remarkable suggestiveness, as with its 
keen analysis and general ability. — The Interior. 

POPULAR Objections to Revealed Truth. 
Considered in a Series of Lectures delivered in the 
New Hall of Science, Old Street. City Road, under 
the auspices of The Christian Evidence Society, 
1873. i2mo . . . . 1 75 

The reasoning is strong, well-defined, and goes straight to a conclu- 
sion with irresistible effect, so that the most moderate intellect can 
understand it, ana the most careless will be attracted by it. — Neva 
York Ti/nes. 



CUL TURE and the Gospel; or, 
A Plea for the Sufficiency of the Gospel, to Meet 
the Wants of an Enlightened Age. By the Rev. 
S. McCall. i6mo, cloth . . . 7 3 

The volume, though small in size, is very rich and suggestive in 
thought, and of more value than many volumes of much large? 
size and greater pretensions. — Quarterly Review. 

CA UT IONS for Doubters. 
By the Rev. J. H. Titcomb, M.A. i6mo, cloth . I 25 

A safe, judicious book to put in the hands of those who are really 
perplexed and distressed by doubts. — Presbyterian. 

STRIVINGS for the Faith. 

The Fourth Series of Lectures delivered under 
the auspices of the Christian Evidence Society. 
i2mo, cloth . . . . . 1 50 

A useful and practical contribution to the literature of belief — ai 
against that of unbelief ; and at the same time is a valuable contri 
bution to literature at large. — Christian Intelligencer. 

SENS UALIS TIC Philosophy of the Nineteenth 
Century ( The). Considered by Robert L. Dabney, 
D.D. 8vo, cloth . . . . . 2 00 

FAITH and Free Thought. 
Being a Second Course of Lectures on Modern 
Scepticism, delivered before the Christian Evidence 
Society. i2mo, cloth . . . . 2 $0 

The book will prove a treasure to any thoughtful student, of the 
present phase of the conflict between truth and error.— Watchman 
and Reflector : 

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The Fulness of Blessing; 

OK, 

THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST, 

AS ILLUSTRATED FROM 
BOOK! OF JOSHUA, 

By SARAH F. SMILEY. 
*** One Vol. 12mo, - - - 350 pp. $1.50. 



The scope of this work is very fairly expressed in 
its title. It does not treat of the Gospel as appealing 
to the Sinner, but as unfolding- its wealth of Promise 
for the Believer. Its object is the often neglected one 
of Christian nurture. 

Its basis is the Book of Joshua, and the doctrinal 
outline simply follows the Historical, touching in turn 
the salient points. In the Land of Promise is traced 
the shadow of our Inheritance in Christ, — its rest, its 
unsearchable riches, and its victory. These are re- 
garded as present possessions, to be reached through 
our participation in the death and resurrection of the 
Lord. The more specific blessings included in this life 
in Christ are traced successively in the Chapters en- 
titled, The Ark of the Covenant, The Passover in 
Canaan, The New Corn and Fruit of the Land, Seeing 
the Captain, and The Good Fighc of Faith. In the 
lat*er the author especially presents the doctrines of 



Sanctification ; and while utterly unlike the superficial 
schemes so widely pressed of late years, it will be 
found to present many fresh features. The terms 
which are used in it are drawn from the Scriptures, 
and not from human systems. Intermingled with these 
chapters are three very searching ones, Chaps. II., III., 
and VIII., which track to their depths the subtleties of 
Unbelief, Legality, and Selfism. The Chapters which 
deal with the Divine Guidance, under the heading of 
Failures and Mistakes, will doubtless attract many as 
presenting a subject of the deepest practical interest, 
and yet most rarely handled in our current teaching. 
The Chapter which follows this — Choice Possessions — 
deals with a subject no less important, the distribution 
and cultivation of Spiritual Gifts. The closing Chapter 
on " The Last Charge of Joshua," glancing, as it does, 
at the various devices of Satan, finds its proper key- 
notes in the words that close the volume : " Blessed is 
he that watcheth." 

While each Chapter has its clearly defined subject 
they are yet so interwoven, as a whole, that no one will 
easily bear disruption. Throughout the volume, Scrip 
ture is made to interpret Scripture, and the symbolism 
of the Old Testament is brought everywhere to re- 
flect its light upon the spirituality of the New. 

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